Political Spectrum - What It Means To Be Liberal and Conservative
91The political landscape is dominated by the terms liberal and conservative. Politicians are labeled as one or other. You have the supposedly liberal media (except FOX News) and the conservative corporate America. But what do these terms really mean? That depends on when and where you are asking about.
The origins of these political philosophies is the Enlightenment period which so influenced the American revolutionaries. The very idea of individual rights and freedoms never existed before and changed the political landscape. At this time of history liberalism emphasized individual rights, human dignity and the role of the individual in choosing their leaders. Early liberals opposed strong, centralized government and generally favored change. Because of these ideals liberals tended to be the poor, minorities (racial, ethnic, religious, gender, etc.) and intellectuals. In general liberals were people who did not have power or a say in the major factors that influenced their lives. Why wouldn't they want change? Things couldn't get much worse.
Conservatives believed the opposite of liberals. Conservatism emphasized the status quo; strong centralized government, rights for higher classes only, divine right of kings, etc. Conservatives were mainly the wealthy and nobility, the church and the military. The people who were traditionally in positions of power. Why would they want change? Things probably would get much worse.
Although the basic groups that made up liberals and conservatives still mostly apply today, the beliefs do not, at least not in the United States. Both liberals and conservatives proclaim the importance of individual rights, although in different areas. Liberals want more individual freedoms in social areas such as free speech, while conservatives emphasize individual freedoms in areas such as business. Both liberals and conservatives believe in the power of centralized government, but again, in different ways. Liberals wanting the government to regulate business and protect the minorities of society, conservatives wanting government to enforce societal norms and protect business. The emphasis on change and the status quo still generally applies but it depends on the issue.
The problem with the liberal and conservative labels is they no longer work. The world has changed too much, with too many new ideas to fit into the old monikers. A four sided graph is now used to describe political philosophies. In addition to the old liberal and conservative ends, there are now authoritarian and libertarian extremes forming a four segmented graph. The website Political Compass gives a quiz to determine where you would be on this modern political spectrum, and allows you to compare yourself to some current and historical political figures.
The addition of the two new categories emphasizes one of the most important aspects of a political spectrum. It is completely relevant to time and place. A conservative in California today is not the same thing as a conservative in South Carolina. A liberal in Texas is not the same as a liberal in Massachusetts. A liberal in the United States is not the same as a liberal in France and an American conservative is not the same as a conservative in Saudi Arabia. The Republicans like to call themselves the party of Lincoln, but in his time Lincoln's Republican Party was considered the liberal party.
Time, place and a growing and changing world all impact how the terms liberal and conservative are defined. It is difficult, and perhaps, inaccurate to label individuals in this way. The reality may be there are more similarities between us than the labels would suggest.
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Not really accurate. You make very general stereotypes. Both philosophies are ideolistic in their own way. If truth and facts were the measure, the weapons of mass destruction argument would have never been used.
Oh those weapons of mass destruction.. they sure have made alot of mileage! They were an accepted fact at the time.... by all involved... period. Truth... fact. That they weren't found does not take away that truth... or change that fact.... and all humans are flawed.. liberal or conservative.... but even that cannot change fact.
What they did is use outdated and selective information to fool everyone into believing there was WMDs. So your statement is true silver but, it's the reason why the fact was accepted that is the problem with this country. If the American people would stop believing everything we are told and think for ourselves then we would not be so easy to control.
"The problem with the liberal and conservative labels is they no longer work"
Very true, and the most fascinating part of history is reflected in the comments: how intelligent people can look at the same subset of facts and see them differently.
Stopthegreed makes a good point. It was generally just Americans who believed there were WMDs. When Colin Powell gave his WMD speech to the UN that the "liberal" Washington Post said was conclusive proof there were WMDs in Iraq, the BBC labeled it a crock. And we all know what the French thought about it.
I just posted a hubpage called Why Liberals and Conservatives Make Each Other Crazy.
Basically, we derive our values from out belief systems -- ideological/theological/cultural -- and these values in turn affect our perceptions, so that we all view the world differently.
To me, it makes the most sense to arrive at decisions using inductive reasoning: make observations, analyze the observations, draw conclusions, and then test the conclusions against new observations, modifying or even discarding the conclusions as necessary. It's what scientists do all the time, but a lot of Americans don't like to do it -- they call it "flip-flopping".
The form of reasoning most Americans use is deductive: start with some assumptions based on your belief system, then derive the conclusions from that. If called upon to provide facts, hunt around until you find some that support your conclusions.
It's really amazing what people will believe in despite evidence to the contrary: that the Bible is literally true, that free trade always works, that global warming is a hoax, that the President never lies....
- Eric
wow thinks alot
the comments i mean
I think this article is confusing libertarianism with liberalism. The founding fathers were libertarians who believed in a free market and a free individual with limited government. The term "Liberal" is very inaccurate. I know authoritarian-left people who call themselves liberal and I know libertarian left people who call themselves liberal. The terms liberal and conservative are way too vague and as intelligent people, we should use more specific terms to label ideologies.
What a total crock of you know what!
It is as plain as the nose on your face the author is as ignorant of conservatism as one can be, only to the point of distorting it in favor of communism, excuse me, Liberalism.
[Conservatism emphasized the status quo; strong centralized government, rights for higher classes only, divine right of kings, etc.]
Right moron, our founding fathers were in favor of kings' rule thus we never had the revolutionary war!
Stick to what you know best - BS because that is what you're trying to sell.
Well Dellt maybe you should read your history. In 1776 there were Tories and they were against the war with England and in fact many took up arms and fought with the British. The Tories were Consertives. Now read about the Whigs they were for the war and I dear say most if not all the signers of that letter sent to King George were Whigs. Now read were it says that Whigs were in fact Liberals. You in fact, if this was 1776 would be doing your best to shoot me. I think the BS is coming from you
Keviin- Conservatives demand economic dominance,political dominance,and Social conformity to its beliefs. We are the better class, do as you are told, we know what is best for all. Our way or the high way!
Class arrogance at the root of personality constitutes conservatism.They fail to understand that Status Quo was at one time reform(change).It's a psyche fearful and adverse to risk,reasonable risk. The Universe is in flux butt not conservationism.It remains the singular phenomenon detrimental to the Universe's clock works,GO! Figure!
silverstar8 4 years ago
Liberals base their discourse on feel good emotions, the abitlity to control all things, facts taken out of context to suit their needs, a twisting of evidence of all things to favor their interests.
Conservatives base their discourse on common sense, reason and truth, no matter how harsh that truth may be or seem to be.