Liberals and Conservatives: An Amazingly Accurate Oversimplification

Simply stated, liberals have a better vision of what the world should look like, but are generally incapable of developing policies consistent with getting us there. This is becaue their approach to problem-solving is based on the their ideals, and is therefore impotent in a reality governed by primal instincts.

Conservatives, on the other hand, are rather efficient when it comes to acheiving goals, but they tend to strive for a world that is markedly non-ideal. Necessarily, this entails a fairly homoegeneous population with unified beliefs, usually aligned via religious dogma. While attractive and tidy, this paradigm seeds conflict throughout the world and is ultimately untenable.

On the outside this is conservative and restrictive, i.e. anti-liberal, but ultimately any liberal society requires an educated population. So in reality, not implementing such systems is the easiest path toward extreme conservatism. Why? Because the more uneducated a given population is, the more totalitarian the government must be in order to maintain order.

This “conservative approach to liberalism” is precarious, to be sure, but I think it’s the only answer.:

Related posts:

1. Triangulating on Conservative Values From Multiple Sources

2. My Postmortem Summary of The Sam Harris & Ezra Klein Podcast

3. Terrorism May Destroy Traditional Religion

4. Defining the Values of the Intellectual Dark Web