--------------------
Dear conservative lurker (apologies for losing your name),
>Since you asked, I am a conservative who lurks on this list, . . .
Lurk not, brave sir! Tell us why the economy's healthy. Or why it's not.
Or what, in the heady dynamics around and within us, represents the status
quo to which you are committed enough to call yourself a conservative. I'm
not being rhetorical (though I admit years on mailing lists has a way of
making one's every word look it), I wanna know!
I have it in me, too, y'see. Hate it when they move the furniture, reckon
popular music just doesn't cut it these days, and am sure the only thing
that has actually got better in the last thirty years is the consistency of
Continental CuppaSoup ... also wary of Utopians, think Ed Burke had some
good points, and share Oakeshott's fear of narrow rationalism.
But I just don't see where the likes of Sowell, Rand or The Shrub offer
succuour. Noblesse oblige is not even a myth any more, and neoliberalism
seems a most radical programme to me (yeah, it may have been warming us
towards boiling point for decades now, like that frog in the saucepan, but
what dramatic changes the last three deades have wrought, eh?)
Cheers,
Rob.
---------------------------
I am not sure what your question is, so I will answer as follows. First, I
am conservative, so I don't believe in perfection and am willing to defend
and conserve imperfection -- I am not going to throw the baby out with the
bathwater. Second, I believe, as an empirical matter, that a
political-economic system that encourages and defends private property is
more conducive to the achievement of individual human happiness than a
system to the contrary, especially because the causes of human happiness are
subjective and diverse. Third, I believe, as an empirical matter, that a
political-economic system that encourages and defends private property is
more conducive to the achievement of the "good life" or the "best life", as
I would define it, than a system to the contrary.
If you have specific questions, I would be happy to answer as best I can.
David Shemano
