Difference Between Conservatism and Liberalism

What is the difference between conservatism and liberalism? Well, the way Liberals will tell it, they are liberated from a number of terrible, awful things that bog down the minds and lives of the Conservatives and which also make the latter dangerous people. Liberals will tell you that they are never bigoted; that they don't rent out their minds to any traditions; that they don't require any kind of religion to guide them in what is wrong and what is right (and if they are "spiritual" it's this kind of New Age spirituality which is all about self-help and assembling your own personal religion that only you understand); that they are pro-active problem solvers; that they are lovers of Nature.

So. The first difference between conservatism and liberalism is this: Liberals believe that it's okay to say anything, including telling blatant lies and dealing out utter misinformation, as long as it promotes the Liberal ideology; Conservatives believe in honesty and fact-based research, and favor principles over ideology.

So. This is a huge difference. In fact, this is the one, core difference which makes Conservatism the victor in the Liberalism vs. Conservatism clash that Liberals are so in love with. This one difference informs everything about Liberalism and everything about Conservatism--one side loves ideology, the other side loves principles.

Liberals love to believe that they are on the cutting edge...while the poor Conservatives remain in the shadows of progress, wallowing in the mire of yesteryear and empty tradition. But as we just said, Liberals are mired down--in their ideology.

As soon as you look at the world through an ideology you are finished. No reality fits an ideology. Life is beyond that. That is why people are always searching for a meaning to life… Meaning is only found when you go beyond meaning. Life only makes sense when you perceive it as mystery and it makes no sense to the conceptualizing mind.

Dr. Anthony DeMello was certainly a liberated man, mentally. He was raised a Catholic and became a Jesuit Priest. He never turned against the Church and never gave up being a Jesuit, but he did see the Catholic Church's "narrowness" as he put it, and he thus explored far beyond the boundaries of its teachings. He ardently explored Zen Buddhism, Islam, traditional Judaism, and other spiritual and religious traditions. Before his death in 1987, he had garnered a reputation from giving emotional and spiritual healing to many, many people.

Wouldn't you say that Dr. DeMello was a "liberal"? Yet, read, his words again: "As soon as you look at the world through an ideology you are finished. No reality fits an ideology. Life is beyond that."

Today, it is Conservatives, not Leftist Liberals, who understand this profound saying. That's why Conservatives "cling to their guns and bibles", as a campaigning Obama snidely remarked in Pennsylvania. That is why Conservatives remain within the Judeo-Christian tradition. Maybe some of them find their church teachings somewhat narrow. But they respect locality. They respect and find value in a transcendent spiritual basis for their existence--one that is beyond themselves, not one that says, "You are the world".

And as far as the guns go...It's just the Second Amendment to our Constitution alive and well. An ageless and timeless principle as we have talked of elsewhere here at American Conservative Values.

Now, what else brings into the light this distinction between Liberal vs. Conservative? How about love? Let's look one more time to Dr. DeMello:

Is it possible for the rose to say, "I will give my fragrance to the good people who smell me, but I will withhold it from the bad?" Or is it possible for the lamp to say, "I will give my light to the good people in this room, but I will withhold it from the evil people"? Or can a tree say, "I'll give my shade to the good people who rest under me, but I will withhold it from the bad"? These are images of what love is about.

Withholding is part of the Liberal agenda--though they disguise it with heavy taxation, and the ideology of "the more you make, the more we should take". But it's the Conservative who says, "Let everyone pursue their dreams and make as much money as they are able to," and they don't disguise it at all as they champion capitalism and low taxes.

What is the difference between conservatism and liberalism? The former breeds free people; the latter breeds slaves. Join the Second Revolution! Join American Conservative Values now!

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