Opponents of conservatism often falsely accuse conservatives of “opposing progress” and portray conservatives as amateurs Ciddle ages in monk’s robes, burning books, and seeking to preserve and cover anything new with a century-old web of darkness. Unfortunately, many people believe in this myth, despite the fact that conservatives have been the greatest drivers of progress from World War II to the present day.
The largest bursts of economic and technological development in the West in the second half of the twentieth century were during the years of Conservative rule. The “economic miracle” of Germany and Italy in the 1950s and 1960s, when new plants and factories sprouted like mushrooms after rain, technology developed, and civic welfare increased, which helped to develop culture and music, occurred during the rule of Christian Democrats Konrad Adenauer and Alcide de Gasperi.
Throughout the second half of the twentieth century, Britain was called the “sick man of Europe,” losing ground and experiencing economic stagnation. It was only during the years of Margaret Thatcher’s conservative government that the country’s economy took off. Many of her ideas, which were radical at the time, have now become part of the mainstream. Millions of new shareholders appeared in the country – the British became a real “nation of new capitalists”. During the 11 years of Thatcher’s rule, production in the country grew by 3-4% annually. The United Kingdom ranked second in the world in terms of labor productivity growth, after Japan. It was Thatcher who achieved complete energy independence of the country, creating conditions for modern oil production technologies. On this financial cushion, Her Majesty’s subjects could develop rock and roll, music, culture, and cinema – because neither the Beatles nor the Rolling Stones would have ever emerged in a poor, corrupt, and hungry country. And no matter what those who call themselves “progressives” today say about conservatives, it was conservatives who laid the financial foundation for progressive cultural trends in the 1970s and 1980s.
It was during the Reaganomics in the United States, which became a policy of overcoming the economic crisis under the leadership of Republican conservatives, that a real “conservative revolution” took place. A real rearmament of the American army began, new technologies were developed, and work began on creating a missile defense with elements of space weapons (the so-called Strategic Defense Initiative or Star Wars program). After all, the most iconic films of American cinema were released at the peak of economic development under the conservative presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. New space achievements and new technologies were intensively developed with the assistance of those whom the leftists today are trying to pass off as “enemies of progress.”
Conservatives have never denied change and evolution if it was necessary and effective, and not change to simply change something from the tried and true to the new, whose effectiveness is not obvious. Those who today call themselves “progressives” and ridicule “medieval conservatives” actually have very little in common with true progress, as development for the public good. Conservatives are against social experiments on people, against doing things just to try and see what happens. Conservatives have never been enemies of progress – on the contrary, they have often led it when it was beneficial to society.
Author: Valeriy Maydanyuk
