Sep
28
Whilst holding my nose and trying not too breath, I was reading the Balloon Juice site (far too many noxious gasses there) when I came upon a post trying to define conservatism and liberalism. Now intelligence and Balloon Juice are strange bedfellows so very little was achieved, so I figured we might do better.
Some noteworthy quotations from people that matter:
Conservatism
Abraham Lincoln:
“What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried”
Dennis Prager:
“Liberals tend to put the onus of your success on society and conservatives on you and your family.”
And one of my favourite definitions of conservative from Michael Oakshott:
“To be conservative…..is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the superabundant, the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to utopian bliss.”
Liberalism*
Hubert H Humphrey:
“Liberalism, above all, means emancipation — emancipation from one’s fears, his inadequacies, from prejudice, from discrimination… from poverty.”
Friedrich Von Hayek:
What the liberal must ask, first of all, is not how fast or how far we should move, but where we should move.
My own limited definition, is that liberalism is the kick up the backside that conservatism needs, whilst conservatism is the brake on liberal excess.
Now it’s your turn.
* I had trouble finding some good liberal quotes that weren’t critical or back-slappingly self-congratulatory. That’s probably because “liberalism” is too broad a subject to be defined easily. Both Republicans and democrats can lay claim to being liberal, either in it’s modern or classical sense. It might be easier to define progressivism or left-liberalism.
Comments
57 Responses to “Defining Liberalism And Conservatism”
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To me liberalism says ’stuff you, I am okay and I dont care what you do, how you do it and what laws you circumvent, you are just fine; sleep with whom you want, screw people over to get to the top’
A people lacking in morals, recognition of the law or moral fibre.
A people with no values or love of the country they are born in, globalists, socialists, commies.Two-faced as well.
Good thing you opened up that comment specifically referring to liberals. Otherwise I would have thought you were speaking of Gov. Mark Sanford.
OT, I’m afraid Morgan is right, there are people like that on both sides. I see the difference as freedom vs control, but there are control freaks on both sides too.
OT:
Were you quoting Newt Gingrich throughout his fatwa against Clinton when he was shagging is assistant behind his cancer-ridden wife’s back?
OT do you really want to go there, everybody is shagging everybody and you might want to look into why there are a lot more teen pregnancies in right wing christan familes in the USA than the general population and why Red States buy more internet porn.
Must start at the top with the dysfunctional ex first family of Alaska
Rhoda,
Is you son’s band Mean Poppa Lean…if so, Wow, they’re good!
Israel,
You’ve got Newts wives mixed up…he was shagging wife number two while wife number one lay dying. He was shagging his assistant, wife number threee behind wife number two’s back. Come on fellow, get your facts straight..
And let’s be politically fair, John Edwards was shagging his photographer and producing a child behind his cancer-ridden wife’s back while trying to become President of the United States.
What fine fellows… but at least Newt recently joined the Catholic church…hey, if the Catholic Church can forgive all the Kennedy clan’s sins and transgressions, I guess they can forgive poor old Newt.
AA
Of course McCain dumped his first wife after she was disfigured in a road accident to marry his rich “Barbie” and wasn’t Rudy Giuliani pretty much shagging everyone behind his multiple wives backs.
At least I got you guys talking!! lol
Thanks, AA. I agree with you, they are good. But then I might just be a teensy little bit biased. In this case. Not usually. At all.
(Mine is the 6ft5in ginger guitarist.)
THX,
Power is a strong aphrodisac…and most politicians on both sides are slimeballs anyway… as far as I’m concerned.
McCain’s wife was older than he when they married and she had two sons from a previous marriage…she also let herself get go, get fat while he was in prison…so when he came out of prison, she looked much older and like a different person…I’ve seen her, and she’s an attractive, vivaous lady and very well liked unlike Cindy McCain…I never made any excuses for McCain and only voted for him to vote against a far-left socialist.
Let’s face it…Men just walk away from relationships…it seems to be much easier for them than for women.
Vivacious!
Rhoda,
How long have they been together as a band?
It’s hard to make it out there with all the thousands of bands…but they look like they have a good chance…I’ll go back and find your son. Thanks for sharing.
Gee AA, easier for men to walk away from relationships??
Based on what I have witnessed I will have to disagree with you there! Women can be extremely cold-hearted
O. Tony,
Sorry to hear you’ve had some cold hearted woman/women in you life…I’m just going by what I’ve seen among our aquaintances.
Divorced men and widowers marry quickly compared to women..it takes women a lot longer to grieve a divorce or death. Men go on with life more quickly.
AA, I do agree that men get on with their lives quicker, but that is sometimes down to something as simple as finances, as men are able to move forward financially a lot easier than women.
Also, men hate being alone and cant do without sex for too long! Women seem to cope with the latter better than men
Too many generalizations about marriage breakup. It has been my observation over the years that nobody knows what goes on in a marriage. Not even the participants. Usually it’s best to try not to judge. Unless you can’t help it, or are possessed of such kbowledge and intuition that you are always right.
AA, they’ve been together three years as a band, but the singer (he’s from NY) and the guitarist had another band for five years. Yes it’s hard to get noticed, and you need to be very persistent just to keep the band together through higher education and the ever-present threat of girls. There are plenty of other videos, but I won’t plague the others here with links, youtube has them all.
Rhoda,
There’s lot of talent out there…our son-in-law plays the guitar and sang with a group in the Denver area called the Threetles…they played mostly Beatle music and were really good. And one of my grandsons played in a very popular ‘blusey’ band in his small college town…but its since broken up when some of the band member graduated and moved on….I think he’ll head to the Austin music scene once he graduates. He knows how tough it will be to find a good band…but atleast he will have a biology degree which hopefully will help feed him.
Ah, the mystery of marriage.
Well, it didn’t take long for a high-minded thread on comparative ideology to degenerate into a discussion of sexual mores. I guess that ideology is dead.
Tony,
The UFO concept is too complicated for my ’simple’ mind.
I’m more worried about people and children singing praises to the ‘Messiah’…gives me the willies. Just like Mao, next we’ll have a little red book of Obama’s sayings that we have to have with us at all time and be able to quote every last homily.
Ronnie,
Captain Hastings: [referring to marriage] “You ever thought about it?”
Hercule Poirot: “In my experience, I know of five cases of wives being murdered by their devoted husbands.
Captain Hastings: “Oh?”
Hercule Poirot: “And twenty-two husbands being murdered by their devoted wives. So thank you, no. Marriage, it is not for me.”
I feel sorry for people that haven’t experienced a marriage with a person you first…like alot, your respect, is funny, is kind and always puts you first, who smells good, whose sexy and who when you check out your other friends husbands, is the very best of the lot..oh did I forget who you ‘love’ because of all those qualities.
In case any of you think our British detective stories are too far fetched try type the following into Google: “inquest judge chubb sparrow verdict”
On the other hand AA, what do you get if you take the “i” out of “married life?”
>
Now you do realise that I’m only joking!
Hey AA,
Here’s another funny one by Tom Lehrer.
“She’s my girl”
==============
Sharks gotta swim, and bats gotta fly,
I gotta love one woman till I die.
To Ed or Dick or Bob
She may be just a slob,
But to me, well,
She’s my girl.
In winter the bedroom is one large ice cube,
And she squeezes the toothpaste from the middle of the tube.
Her hairs in the sink
Have driven me to drink,
But she’s my girl, she’s my girl, she’s my girl,
And I love her.
The girl that I lament for,
The girl my money’s spent for,
The girl my back is bent for,
The girl I owe the rent for,
The girl I gave up Lent for
Is the girl that heaven meant for me.
So though for breakfast she makes coffee that tastes like shampoo,
I come home for dinner and get peanut butter stew,
Or if I’m in luck,
It’s broiled hockey puck,
But, oh well, what the hell,
She’s my girl,
And I love her.
David M.
Did you see the episode where someone delivers a parrot to Poirot?
Ah If we’re being all lovey-dovey, Mrs THX is in NYC and I miss her, she seems to having a great time though.
Ronnie,
The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim?
No, but I’ll look out for it on ITV3. The quotes on imdb are hilarious.
David M,
Ahhh…that was nice.
THX,
Absence makes the heart grow fonder…on both ends.
Ronnie,
A romantic, your not…
An American.
I have my moments, but only in the presence of ‘far left liberals’.
Ronnie,
I kind of feel that way about Conservatives.
THX
There has been a tsumani in the Samoan Islands…and they have all headed for higher ground, up to the hills. If they were from New Orleans…they would have stayed put and blamed George Bush while they were being washed out to sea.
AA
starting to sound like AA “doesn’t like black people”
THX
Did I say anything about black people…I believe that white people live in New Orleans too…Black and white people also live in Mississippi…But they had a governor that forced evacuation and I believe that not a single person died there, even though the devastation was ten times worse than New Orleans.
If you want to remain a friend…don’t do that bigotry bit on me.
AA
“don’t do that bigotry bit on me.”
You’re right I immediately regreted the post- Sorry !
AA…lol! I love your humour
An American:
Why do you keep posting things that are so easily refuted?
THEY.
SANG.
SONGS.
ABOUT.
YOUR.
MANCRUSH.
BUSH.
AFTER.
KATRINA.
Or are you going to claim that those don’t exist now and the left made them up now that your party has thrown him under the bus?
Why have you not posted more about the complete removal of anything to do with the Bush administration by your lot since January, or are you too so very ashamed of your mancrush?
AA
The kids worship Bush and kiss his feet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxdt_f0hwUg&feature=player_embedded
I think I’m gonna puke
THX/Israel
But they didn’t pray to him though
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/09/29/video-community-organizers-pray-to-their-new-deity-or-something/
Hi all, back after my problems. You know things aren’t going well when the gas people cut through the electricity cable, and when the electric people come out, they cut through the phone cable. At this rate I’ll end up with an unwanted vasectomy. Ouch
Hey cabbie welcome back
THX
Thanks. So will we see you defending Hollywood defending Polanski?
Cabbie
Polanski.
I was waiting for that.
I read his autobiography Roman by Polanski (and he wrote himself unlike you know who) as a child he survived the liquidation of Warsaw Ghetto and the camps where his parents were murdered.
His wife the Uber gorgeous Sharon Tate was 8 mths pregnant when she was murdered along with four of his friends in the most horrible circumstances by that monster Manson.
It was thirty years ago, The woman involved is saying leave him alone.
I say anyone who survived the Hollocaust and the murder of their loved ones deserves something above the rest of us.
I say give the guy a break.
THX
Yes, all horrible and that. But he drugged a 13 year old girl and forced her to have anal sex. I’m not so inclined to give him a break. I’m leaning more towards the electric chair myself (ok, half-kidding).
Mind you, no surprise to see Woody Allen supporting him.
Cabbie
Yep it’s tricky,
And I don’t think that it is cut and dried as you make out
HBO Documentary WANTED AND DESIRED
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMieQzq1snc
He is a great film director though.
Have you seen the semi- autobiographical The Pianist? A majestic and very moving film
THX
I’m afraid it’s very cut and dried:
That is
never
acceptable with a 13 year old. No matter how good his movies may or may not be. And I’m not sure his skills as a filmaker are in any way relevant.
Cabbie
Well not according to the HBO Documentary it isn’t.
I’m nor defending him but as I said before I have always thought that Holocaust survivors somehow deserve something that isn’t due the rest of us.
THX.
Surely you can accept that even Holocaust survivers are not allowed to rape children?
THX
I could probably forgive them shoplifting, but not that. Some in Hollywood are showing themselves somewhat out of touch on this matter. Whoopi Goldberg says it wasn’t “rape-rape”. Hmmm. Forced cunnilingus, forced vaginal and anal sex. I wonder what constitutes rape-rape in her bizzaro world?
Ronnie
“Surely you can accept that even Holocaust survivers are not allowed to rape children?
Of Course I accept that
I was just arguing that they deserve something that isn’t due the rest of us in compensation somehow for what happen to them in the camps.
Yes, THX, within civilised parameters.
Weel, that would be decided at Sentencing, wouldn’t it? As it is now, his sentence will be based on skipping for thirty years. There’s no need to redo the trial.
Is the difference between Liberalism and Conservatism to any extent based on emotional response vs logical coldness? Spock is a conservative, Bones is a liberal? Liberals want to make allowances, Cons want to treat everyone the same? Or am I cherry-picking examples? Whoopi Goldberg always seems to me to submerge logic with feelings. She even justified that attitude when she was on O’Reilly’s show. Not rape-rape? Even if she was presented to Polanski on a plate, he still had a responsibility to behave correctly. (Not Whoopi, the girl)
Rhoda.
You are cherry-picking but I agree with your other comments.
I had no idea that Spock was a Conservative. Is he a teabagger?
THX,
You have a daughter…would you leave her with this great film maker that you admire so much…by chance?
Ronnie.
You certainly have a thing about teabagging…
AA
As I keep saying I’m not defending him I just think that as a Holocaust survivor and as someone whose pregnant wife was butchered, he somehow deserve something that isn’t due the rest of us. The guy deserves a break!
And yes he is great filmaker Rosemary’s Baby, Tess & The Pianist are exceptional films