CONSERVATISM

“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