Conservatism is perhaps the only ideology that does not idealize a person, does not try to make him or her an ideal citizen, and does not force society to be perfect.
Conservatives are guided by the principle of the imperfection of human nature, realize that every person has some flaws, passions and sins, and treat this with understanding, not looking for perfection. For conservatives, the phrase “even the sun has spots” is not just about the celestial body. The Communists tried to force people to be selfless, to work selflessly in Komsomol units for rations and to dream of the success of socialism. And when they failed, the USSR was plagued by corruption, fraudsters, speculators, crime, and sycophancy. And then communist idealists tried to re-educate people through repression, famines, and gulags.
Contemporary left-liberals and leftist movements fight against what they themselves consider latent or overt manifestations of intolerance, censor hate speech, fight for the correct use of feminine terms, and hate those who cannot understand the importance of their ideas. And yet studies show that in no country in the world has 100% of the population become tolerant, equal, and inclusive. Even in Denmark and Sweden, countries that are considered to be the flagships of feminism, gender experts say that women’s rights are only 80-90% protected. For some reason, in this reality, there is not a single society that has reached the level of tolerance ideals sought by left-liberal activists.
Neither fascists, nor environmentalists, nor communists, nor liberals have yet succeeded in forcing people to stop being selfish creatures, to get rid of their stereotypes and desires, and to start serving the ideals of the perfect society they have constructed. Strange, isn’t it?
Such lofty ideas, imbued with the public good, but for some reason they are still unattainable.
The United States is still fighting racism, Sweden is still fighting patriarchy, and the Netherlands is still fighting homophobia, and the struggle is still ongoing, with no end in sight. It seems that the activists of the above ideologies themselves do not believe that their ideas can be implemented 100%, but no one will say so out loud. And if a person remains imperfect, then no ideal social order can be created.
Conservatives are the only ones who do not rape human nature and do not demand that citizens be inclusive, diverse, tolerant, selfless, or conform to the purity of a race. According to conservatives, humanity will never become the way adherents of social utopias see it. And forcing people to follow the utopia means killing millions of “different” people who do not meet the standards of utopianism. Lenin and Stalin exterminated kulaks, the bourgeoisie, and “enemies of the people,” while in modern Iran they are trying to force women to hide under veils, and in Cuba communism has been completed to the point of total blackout and no one is allowed to leave the “island of freedom.”
Conservatives are convinced that it is best not to pursue any perfect utopia, but to build a relatively orderly, just and as free a society as possible, in which poverty, inequality and injustice will not disappear, but their manifestations will be minimized by fair state and social regulation.
Of course, there will always be dissatisfied minorities: for example, quadroberts may be unhappy with the parliamentary representation quota, and others may complain about the lack of respect for their identity. But the basic provisions of the Declaration of Human Rights and Freedoms are a sufficient framework for human and social development.
By implementing sensible reforms, society can preserve and improve an imperfect but tolerable order. Instead, those who promised the perfection of man and society turned their countries into ruins and hell. Conservatism does not force people to be perfect and does not kill anyone for it.
Author: Valeriy Maydanyuk