Right wingers, conservatives, and traditionalists alike, there is something you need to hear.
do not have Conservative.
you
liberal. If you don’t have a noble aristocratic lineage that dates back to before the French Revolution, you’re just a peasant in denial waging a centuries-old peasant revolt against your rightful overlords, because that’s conservatism. Really The old and traditional order, Ancient Régimethis is the method that worked most effectively and correctly.
The ideologies that drive movements like racial equality, mass immigration, and LGBT rights are all based on the same fundamental paradigm that empowered peasants just a few centuries ago.
And by old order I mean a ruling hierarchy with the monarch at the top and the Third Estate, the peasants, at the bottom. All of conservatism depends on the monarchical model of hierarchy. Any deviation from the conservative model is a departure into liberalism.
Don’t get me wrong, we’ve been moving in a straight line to the left politically for centuries, and the sources of departure from monarchy begin and end with the empowerment and idolization of a personal ruler, as opposed to deference to a personal monarch.
Rank.
Historical background
To understand this, let’s take a moment to look back in history. Historically, this departure began in the West with the development and emergence of the Protestant Reformation, which directly challenged the power of the Catholic Church by abolishing its monopoly on access to the Bible, and sparked a major schism within the Holy Roman Empire.
The Treaty of Augsburg in 1555 attempted to resolve the growing religious rifts by allowing rulers to choose between Catholicism and Lutheranism in their territories. As many countries aligned along religious lines, tensions only grew. The religious toleration granted to Protestants did not last long and was quickly revoked when Catholic Ferdinand II came to power as King of Bohemia. Thus began the Thirty Years’ War, which was eventually ended with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648.
These events began with the fall of the Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope from their position as the highest authority in the country, and brought about fundamental changes in society that continue to this day.
Nation-state.
The constant state of conflict created by religious differences prompted a search for a more effective system of governance. The Westphalian model condemned the rule of one centralized authority with universal control by recognizing the sovereignty of each nation-state. In essence, an era of separation of church and state began, where the state, not religion, controlled governance. Secular governance was born.
Double-edged sword
Now, if you’re liberal in spirit, you might be thinking, “How is this bad? This is great!” Yes, Mr. Liberal, the post-Westphalian order is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it opened the door to the development of the modern nation-state. It was the first step towards the prospect of sovereignty being held by peoples as states, rather than sovereignty belonging to the courts of a kingdom.
On the other hand, one of the main problems with this model is that it opens the door to the expansion of all sovereign nations, imperialism, and ultimately military conflict, but more on this a little later.
But another major effect of the Peace of Westphalia was that it ushered in a new era of knowledge: the Enlightenment. As countries moved away from the dominance of religion, the emphasis on science over superstition and the development of liberal ideas began to take root. The Enlightenment was the period that gave birth to ideas that we’re all familiar with, like freedom, democracy, and free-market capitalism.
Thinkers like John Locke promoted the idea that government needed to be limited and accountable to the people. These ideas directly challenged the notion that only the king and the aristocracy could rule a country and its inhabitants. This was the first time in modern history that people were beginning to consider that they might be more than just serfs and peasants.
In addition, it was an age of scientific discovery, which liberated humanity further in a twofold sense. First, it liberated it from traditionally held religious and superstitious ideas, and second, it liberated it visibly through the dramatic increase in economic production that came with the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution was essentially the implementation of the Enlightenment ideas in the field of mechanical engineering. People got smarter, and as a result, they made great advances in the field of technology. They were able to move from a world of physical, manual labor to a new world of automated labor.
Then there was an explosion in the production of food and non-essential luxury goods. The steam engine. The automobile. The light bulb. All of these inventions stemmed from man’s liberation from the shackles of peasant life under kings, and they all contributed to the further empowerment of the common man.
The King is Dead
The great political reorganization of modern nation states began to occur in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries as a result of the political, economic, and educational emancipation of ordinary people. People were getting smarter (because education was more readily available), had more free time (because food could be obtained more easily and efficiently), and began to develop organized grassroots political movements.
Nationalist movements that have arisen all over the world (democracy, constitutional republicanism, fascism, communism, Nazism, etc.) have sought to overthrow and replace kings. But what happens when the masses, who were merely peasants only a few generations ago, are able to form their own political ideology, form their own government, and rely on their own mode of production? What happens when incredible power is given to the powerless?
Well, like any other living creature, they like to test the limits of their power. They feel the need to wake up and stretch their legs. That’s what caused the two world wars. The world is too big for any group of powerful individuals. People go out into the world and
use In the 19th and 20th centuries, mature but young nation-states wanted to expand and pursue their own destinies. As a result, they clashed. Conflict. Global, industrialized conflict.
Above all, the individual
Today, we live in the post-World War II era, and the pursuit of individual empowerment is more intense and widespread. The ideologies driving movements like racial equality, mass immigration, and LGBTQ+ rights are all based on the same fundamental paradigm that empowered peasants just a few centuries ago: the individual is the product of their own actions.
Released From the “constraints” given to him Oppressor.
If the belief that poor peasants were oppressed by tyrannical overlords compelled them to seek education, science, technology and anti-religion, then women, gays and transgender people are all seeking the same liberation. It is all the same movement, because what we are ultimately seeing in the context of this historical reflection is a gradual progression from monarchism (conservatism) to individualism (liberalism).
The Treaty of Westphalia dismantled supreme religious authority, the Enlightenment promoted individual rights over the state, the Industrial Revolution dramatically improved the quality of life, and feminism liberated women from traditional gender roles.
Individual God went from being an insignificant speck of dust to being the ruler of the universe, destroying kings and empires.
Back…but to what?
All of these things come from liberalism. After all, we opened Pandora’s box when humanity as a whole started to move away from monarchies. People used to be stupid and poor. They worked in the fields all their lives until they died. But as people became smarter and more educated and well-fed and pampered, their power increased. They got more power. And with power comes the desire to use it.
You are not a conservative
Accurately Because those who came before you won for you the right to, for example, read the Bible in your native language. You can interpret the Bible yourself without a priest. That in itself is a liberal activity. To be conservative means to cede all power and responsibility to someone or something higher.
That’s why I say the modern conservative ideal is too arbitrary. If you call yourself a conservative, what point in history exactly do you want to go back to? The 1950s? Does that mean you’re in favor of women’s suffrage? Or do you want to go back to the monarchy? So how do you think we should solve the problem of you being able to read and write, think for yourself, and ultimately, if necessary, challenge the decisions of the king?
That’s my point. You and millions of others have too much power now. You know so much that you can never go back. Stop larping that you think it’s possible to “go back”. Start thinking about what it means to be an empowered individual that transcends both conservatism and liberalism. If you want to secure a future for yourself and your descendants, you’re going to have to think about it in new, completely original ways.
Editor’s note: a Version This article originally appeared on X (formerly Twitter).
