First things first: I have a column up today at The American Spectator Online: They Don’t Make Hate Like They Used To.
I was thinking of linking to a particular internet post today, and then I thought, “No. Too political.”
And it occurred to me to ask, “We’re obviously a conservative blog. How is being conservative different from being political?”
This is an important question, and I think Phil and I are generally agreed on it.
Political questions refer to matters of legislation and electioneering. Heaven knows we comment on such things from time to time here, but it’s not what the blog is about.
Cultural conservatism is a much broader concept. I was a cultural conservative back when I was still a Democrat.
Cultural conservatism means having a long-range view of cultural issues. The fact that an idea is new gives it no more than neutral weight. Newness tells us nothing. The fact that an idea is old disposes us toward it positively (though certainly old ideas have been proved wrong from time to time). That which has worked for our ancestors is very likely to have good reasons behind it, even if we no longer see them.
Ideas do not age.
I know what you’re thinking: What about slavery?
But the fact is, the basic idea that slavery is wrong is not a new idea. Abolition is a new practice in history, but the essential principle is the Golden Rule—do as you would be done by. No one wants to be a slave, so no one should make a slave of another. That’s been true from the beginning.
The inconvenient fact that, up until the Industrial Revolution, civilization was impossible without slavery kept most people from examining the matter too closely.
But the principle itself is one of those old, conservative ones.