Principles of conservatism
Being neither a religion nor an ideology, the body of opinion termed conservatism possesses no Holy Writ and no Das Kapital to provide dogmata. So far as it is possible to determine what conservatives believe, the first principles of the conservative persuasion are derived from what leading conservative writers and public men have professed during the past two centuries. After some introductory remarks on this general theme, I will proceed to list ten such conservative principles.
Perhaps it would be well, most of the time, to use this word “conservative” as an adjective chiefly. For there exists no Model Conservative, and conservatism is the negation of ideology: it is a state of mind, a type of character, a way of looking at the civil social order.
The attitude we call conservatism is sustained by a body of sentiments, rather than by a system of ideological dogmata. It is almost true that a conservative may be defined as a person who thinks himself such. The conservative movement or body of opinion can accommodate a considerable diversity of views on a good many subjects, there being no Test Act or Thirty-Nine Articles of the conservative creed.
In essence, the conservative person is simply one who finds the permanent things more pleasing than Chaos and Old Night. (Yet conservatives know, with Burke, that healthy “change is the means of our preservation.”) A people’s historic continuity of experience, says the conservative, offers a guide to policy far better than the abstract designs of coffee-house philosophers. But of course there is more to the conservative persuasion than this general attitude.
It is not possible to draw up a neat catalogue of conservatives’ convictions; nevertheless, I offer you, summarily, ten general principles; it seems safe to say that most conservatives would subscribe to most of these maxims. In various editions of my book I have listed certain canons of conservative thought—the list differing somewhat from edition to edition; in my anthology The Portable Conservative Reader I offer variations upon this theme. Now I present to you a summary of conservative assumptions differing somewhat from my canons in those two books of mine. In fine, the diversity of ways in which conservative views may find expression is itself proof that conservatism is no fixed ideology. What particular principles conservatives emphasize during any given time will vary with the circumstances and necessities of that era. The following ten articles of belief reflect the emphases of conservatives in America nowadays.
thinking within context thinking within the concept thinking without words thinking without language thinking without a banister thinking without thinking thinking without emotion thinking without thought thinking without inner monologue thinking without pictures athinkingape inthinking inthinking ib inthinking psychology inthinking biology inthinking history inthinking spanish b inthinking chemistry inthinking student login design thinking unthinking unthinkingly unthinking synonym unthinking respect for authority unthinking eurocentrism unthinking definition unthinking mastery unthinking meaning thinking about you thinking at the margin thinking about you quotes thinking at the margin definition thinking about you gif thinking bout you lyrics thinking about synonym thinking about thinking thinking bout you thinking blocks thinking bubble thinking bout you dustin lynch thinking bout you lyrics frank ocean thinking bout you frank ocean thinking bout you dustin lynch lyrics thinking cup thinking cap thinking cup boston thinking chair thinking critically thinking cartoon thinking cloud thinking collaborative thinking definition thinking disorders thinking drawing thinking deeply thinking distortions thinking definition psychology thinking dog thinking differently thinking emoji thinking errors thinking emoji meme thinking emoji gif thinking errors pdf thinking emoji png thinking emoji copy paste thinking errors worksheet thinking fast and slow thinking face thinking face emoji thinking fast and slow summary thinking for a change thinking fast and slow by daniel kahneman thinking fast and slow review thinking face meme thinking gif thinking games thinking geographically thinking guy gif thinking gif meme thinking games for adults thinking games for kids thinking globally thinking hard thinking hard meme thinking hats thinking hard gif thinking highly of yourself thinking hard synonym thinking head thinking huts thinking in bets thinking in systems thinking in spanish thinking in pictures thinking images thinking icon thinking into resultsYou might also like





![]() |
Conservatism Rocks Mobile Application (Tim Rahija)
|