Understanding the Conservative Mind

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12-09-2011, 08:07 AM

Schmidt
Colorado Springs, CO
Posts: 1058

Reference: Corey Robin, Alternet, December 8, 2011: Understanding the Conservative Mind: Why Reactionaries from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin Have Fought Real Liberty
http://www.alternet.org/occupywallst/153378/understanding_the_conservative_mind...

This article by Corey Robin is a summary of his recent book, The Reactionary Mind, with a related subtitle. It focuses on the driving forces behind conservative thinking, and the conservative's resistance to the evolution of change in society, whether it be political, social, the work place, or even family...men and women...with historical anecdotes that capture one's attention.

Did you know that "until 1980, for example, it was legal in every state in the union for a husband to rape his wife."

While this anecdote may sound like a bit condemning, it is just one of many that Robin cites from the slavery movement, and the thinking of our forefathers like Adams, to the current day politics, as workers, minorities and women struggle for freedom and equality...and how equality threatens the world of the conservative thinker.

For the conservative, equality portends more than a redistribution of resources, opportunities, and outcomes--though he certainly dislikes these, too. What equality ultimately means is a rotation in the seat of power.

So much of Robin's focus is on the thinking of the conservative mind, mostly the male, that sees equality as a threat to his power. He quotes Edmund Burke in his concluding paragraph in referring to the distinction of power:

If the power goes, the distinction goes with it. This vision of the connection between excellence and rule is what brings together in postwar America that unlikely alliance of the libertarian, with his vision of the employer's untrammeled power in the workplace; the traditionalist, with his vision of the father's rule at home; and the statist, with his vision of a heroic leader pressing his hand upon the face of the earth. Each in his own way subscribes to this typical statement, from the nineteenth century, of the conservative creed: "To obey a real superior . . . is one of the most important of all virtues--a virtue absolutely essential to the attainment of anything great and lasting."

Comments are invited. Read Robin's article at the above link, which also contains a link to purchase his book.

12-20-2011, 09:37 PM

BuyAmerican
Not Selected
Posts: 9

Conservative means to limit change, to preserve or maintain the current status.

Conservatives have not done well if you look at history. Imagine if African Americans and women could not vote, if women were still forced to have a baby, if child labor was allowed.
Today, all the Republican Presidential candidates support removing womens rights, workers rights and conservatives are attempting to disenfranchise minority and poor voters again in conservative states.

Conservative minds have always been lead by white male dominance, therefore, maintaining power for white men has been conservatives main objective.
Our Consttution and Declaration of Independence only gave white male land owners the right to vote in the first Presidential Election in 1789. Conservatives lost the Civil War which lead to the 13th and 15th Amendments of 1865 freeing and giving African-Americans the right to vote but conservatives disenfranchised African-Americans from voting for nearly 100 years until the 24th Amendment was passed in 1964. Conservatives refused to allow women to vote until Susan B.Anthony started the womens sufferage movement during the 1890's. Conservatives resisted until 1920 when the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote. It took the Supreme Court decision in 1973 to give women control of their own body and gave them a right to choose instead of being forced to have a baby. Today, conservatives are attacking womens rights in numerous states attempting to remove their right to choose.
It does not suprise me that until 1980, husbands could legally rape their wife. How sad is that?
Majority of Americas millionaires and billionaires are white males therefore the conservatives give them everything, every tax cut, every loop hole and deny working class Americans the same things.

Conservatives are afraid of losing power so they figure out ways to change laws which help conservative idealogy...

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