14 An Introduction to Clearer Thinkinganew. Edmund Burke, many years ago, noted that to destroy an
institution— and it takes a revolution to do that— is to create a
vacuum into which no one knows what will come. He would
claim that man is an institution-creating animal, and that the
destruction of the offending institution is only going to result in
its replacement with another, maybe better, probably worse. In
any case, to destroy what exists, in the hopes of gaining Utopia,
is dangerous stuff. To reform the institution in need of repair
seems a more reasoned approach.
The middle of the roader is not making judgments about the
issues, and therefore, for our purposes is not important. We shall
be studying a process of making judgments, reasoned judg
ments, about some important issues; the middle of the roader is
not interested, he doesn’t care. He would rather not know the
issue, not join the debate, not make a judgment about the
question. However, when one says, “I cannot choose because I
do not have enough facts to make a judgment,” that is a deferred
judgment and laudable in fact as well as well as in relation to this
course.
So let us briefly examine some of the general tenets of
conservatism and liberalism. The extreme liberal is usually
radical and the extreme conservative is often reactionary. The
farther the two move away from their extremes the closer they
become to one another, and at times the distinctions blur. And yet
there are some basic tenets of each which have been fairly
consistent over the years. We shall examine how both look at the
nature of man, morality, society, politics, economics, education,
and the world in general.
THE NATURE OF MAN
Conservatives view man as a very complex and intricate
being, imperfect and imperfectable, a mixture of good and evil,
but because of his flawed nature, with a propensity towards evil.
Christian conservatives refer to this condition as “Original Sin.”
This view of man’s nature has great implications for the way
conservatives view man’s relations with one another and the
institutions he creates.
The conservative sees man as a dualism, a combination of
mind and body. The mind is the knowing aspect, the body the