great thinkers, great ideas

Classifying Viewpoints 19

THE WORLD VIEW

There are many terms which describe how the conservative
looks at the world. Caution— these are general terms which
apply only to attitudes about issues. The conservative tends to be
pessim istic about change, sees man as im perfect and
imperfectable, but with a free will, seeks order and stability,
cherishes tradition, ritual, the rule of law, authority, religion;
believes man is competitive, is elitist, and supports limited
government. He is a dualist, with a belief of the primacy of the
mind, but with a faith in God.
The liberal on the other hand, sees man as good, society as the
culprit. He favors change, experimentation, creativity; he be­
lieves in democracy, the greatest good for the greatest number,
majority rule, egalitarianism, and redistribution of wealth. Man
is cooperative, perfectible, and in control of his own political
destiny; he is a humanist, with emotions which are natural and
equal to the mind.
Of course one basic problem in defining these conservative
and liberal terms is that historic development has brought about
many flip-flops; i.e., ideas held by liberals were appropriated by
conservatives, and vice versa. There is, then, a historic dimen­
sion which renders the definitions somewhat tenuous. Perhaps a
good word to use in describing the attitudes of each would be
“propensity.” We could say that both conservatives and liberals,
based on their premises, have a propensity to gravitate to the
positions enumerated above.
Conservatives and liberals are both committed to achieving
the “good life” for humankind. They both seek to improve the
political, moral, social, economic and educational institutions
which play such an important role in the daily lives of all of us.
Both, however, begin with different premises. Thus they both
have different solutions to the same problems. Both views of the
world are continually changing as well; to be sure conservatives
tend to change more slowly, while liberals tend to change more
quickly—but that’s the nature of the beast.