_______________________________________________________________ | | http://propaganda.lege.net/quadrant/ | | | These thoughts were originally formulated by Ulf Erlingsson | in a September 15, 2003 post to the propaganda@lege.net | mailinglist: | | | Ulf & Leif Erlingsson | September 19, 2003 | The Social/Moral Liberal/Conservative Value Quadrant | | | On Monday, September 15, 2003, Leif Erlingsson wrote: | Conservatives doesn't seem to require Critical Thinking, | apparently. If this is true, then possibly I cannot be a | conservative? But I think this picture is false. I'm sure | there are thinking conservatives, out there. It's just a | matter of finding them. ;-) | | Ulf Erlingsson replied: I think one has to separate two | things, moral, and social issues. Morally conservative | would be one who does not adopt a number of laissez-faire | attitudes such as "let the drugs free". The latter is | called "liberal" by American right-wingers, but there is | nothing "liberal" about those notions, if we by "Liberal" | mean 'connected to the political ideology Liberalism' (they | use the word in the meaning "liberate", as in "free the | drugs", for the purpose of confusion). | | Most of us are obviously morally conservative. | | Socially conservative is one who does not want to change the | current order, which in the US means a tremendous gap | between rich and poor, exploitation of the masses by the | capital, and similar things. Most of us are obviously | "morally conservative but socially progressive". | | I think that the right-wing plan is to fool people into | thinking that the criteria for being conservative is if you | are morally conservative, but they don't want people to | realize what their social agenda is. They talk with a split | tongue, saying different things to different audiences. A | large part of conservative followers are obviously fooled | into voting for something that is contrary to their own | interests. But you can't deny that there are many people who | just don't think that poor people should have the same | health care etc as they do; who think that class division is | fair (as long as they are in the upper class, one may | presume). | | Leif Erlingsson: I think my brother hit the hammer on the | nail. Before continuing, I must state: I am not objective. | My perspective is the Socially Progressive, Morally | Conservative. If we make a graph out of this, it might be: | | | Socially | Progressive | | /\ Of course, there are Most `Conservatives' | || also many `Liberals' really are Socially | || that are also Progressive -- and | || `Morally Progressive'. most `Liberals' are | || Morally Conservative. | || | || Of course, there are | || The people in this some `Conservatives' | || quadrant are hopefully that are also Socially | || locked away... Conservative. | || | ========================================================> | Morally Conservative | | | So, where in this graph is the `Liberal', and where is the | `Conservative' ? Well, as Ulf pointed out, most people are | Morally Conservative but Socially Progressive. I.e., most | `Conservatives' really are Socially Progressive -- or | `connected to the political ideology Liberalism'. They end | up at the top, right corner in the graph. Then the `Morally | Progressive' are in the top, left corner. They still share | important values with most `Conservatives'. Then there is | the `Conservatives' that are also Socially Conservative. | I.e. they don't want a better society. Most people, | Democrat or Republican, are in the right-top quadrant. | Decent people that want what is good for society and for | families. | | | Copyright © Leif & Ulf Erlingsson 2003. The above may be | reproduced in full -- even commercially -- free of charge, | as long as this copyright message is also cited in full. | However, please drop us a line at leif@lege.com when you use | our text, citing the way it's being used. Thanks! |______________________________________________________________