“In one way or other we are all conservatives” – said my
friend. “Is it so?” – I asked. “Yes” he said and continued “over time
Conservatism thrives in our society”. When I started thinking about his
statement I too thought that it is true. Often we come across social
conservatism, political conservatism and religious conservatism. The old timers
do not forget their old culture, olden-day-things, old literature, habits and
beliefs. Not only that! They do strictly follow and preach the young generation
about conservatism. Thus conservatism remains for ever with us.
In our society people are divided by caste and race.
Every caste or race has certain lifestyle, faith and mind-set. Such habits are
invariably passed on to the next generation. The type of food they eat, the
songs they sing, the way they dress, and the manner they treat others are
unique. Wherever they are, they follow them. Thus they conserve those customs.
Political conservatism is exhibited by all political
parties. Conservative party in UK and USA are well known. The Conservative
party in UK is termed as Tory. The Republican Party is termed as the
Grand-Old-Party (GOP) in the US. These two parties promulgate the capitalistic
ideas. Generally they want to uphold the past glory of the countrymen and women
and their culture. As against such conservative parties there are liberals or
labor parties in the UK and democrats in the US. Popularizing conservatism by
some political parties is seen even in other countries in the world.
All religions in the world are generally conservative.
They have a set of rules based on their religious thoughts, to make order in
society. Everyone who follows such religions is expected to accept and adopt
those rules. No one is expected to differ the religious faith even it is
superstitious, violent or hating other religions. Thus the conservatism is
ingrained in the religious teaching and preaching.
However, conservatism is diluted
based on the logic and scientific thinking. Since knowledge is free to all,
educated men and women start thinking of the relevance of old culture, old
thinking or old way of living in modern life. Human beings are evolved a lot in
every walk of life. They broke the conservative ideas and progressed. Such
progress is welcomed by the younger generation and move on to a new world. Thus
day by day, the conservative customs are fading slowly. The change occurs
because of lifestyle changes that occur over time.
Whether conservatism is good or bad is to be seriously
considered. On the one hand we conserve many of our monuments, temples,
churches, mosques, museums, parks, and cities, spiritual thinking, respecting
others, maintaining family life etc. On the other hand conservatism hampers
some of our new thinking. It does not allow us putting a stop to ignorance and
superstition. So it is obvious that strict conservatism or liberalism cannot be
sustained. As such the conservative principles are slowly getting diluted.
Fanatic attitude towards
conservatism,
in fact, creates confusion and contradiction.
In
the name of conservatism, fanatics create unrest among people. These fanatics
have to understand the ill-effects of their fanatic
idealism. In today’s world, freedom and equality play an important role. Not
the King-Subject way of life. Democracy and freedom of speech are the order of
the day although there are some restrictions to keep the society under control.
Conservatism is necessary to conserve our culture, but not to impose blind
beliefs in the young minds. Let us be liberalized conservatives not fanatic
conservatives. – NARA
