The Rotten Core of Conservatism

Cenk Uygur is passionate in his critique of conservatism.

And perhaps his passion got a little out of control recently.

Cenk went on a tirade during a recent broadcast of his show, The Young Turks…

He called conservatives a bunch of pussies.

Because, he says, they tend to always react from fear.

We did witness a good deal of fear-mongering in the recent elections, so in that light, Cenk has a point.

But, I believe his analogy is faulty.

At least in the schoolyard sense, I would equate conservatives more with the bullies who tend to taunt others with that derogatory term.

A “pussy”, in that sense, is a kid who won’t stand up for himself. He lets others run over him…call him names…embarrass him in front of his peers.

He just won’t fight.

Growing up as a skinny, awkward kid in the rural south, first with hair too long when it wasn’t cool (at least, not in my neck of the woods), and later with friends too black when that wasn’t cool either, I know what it feels like to be called one of those.

And like bullies, conservatives aren’t afraid of a fight, especially when the outcome is pretty much predetermined. In fact, they love it a bit too much.

Their ideology may be in part motivated by fear, but it’s not fear that marks the conservative mindset…

but isolation.

Wait a minute? How can you call free trade loving conservatives isolationists?

Because in reality conservatives don’t want free trade…at least not the kind that puts all trading partners on equal footing.

They want free trade that benefits the stronger trader…them.

Which is exactly what free trade generally does.

CAFTA has done worlds of good for Walmart in Costa Rica, but not so much for the potato farmer on the slopes of vulcan Irazu.

So, I reiterate my point…

That is, they want to live in a world where they are isolated (and protected, which is where I believe Cenk was coming from) from all those who might harbor different opinions on the matter of what life really should be about.

And they are more than ready to fight anyone who dares to take issue with the core belief.

In that sense, they are a bit like ISIS, but with a different core motive.

And what is at the core of this isolationist worldview? What’s really at the rotten core of conservatism?

The idea that private property…the right to create it, accumulate it, hoard it and do anything necessary to protect it…

is sacrosanct.

In the conservative mindset, private property takes precedence over people and planet.

Other ideologies, or world-views, that elevate people and planet over private property rights, are dismissed as communistic, socialistic, or simply nonrealistic utopian hogwash.

That’s why a person who identifies him or herself as conservative will spew such venomous hatred towards a President who was the first to take action for all people to have the right to affordable health care.

How dare you take away a few dollars from me to make sure someone else can be healthy!

Even though doing so is not really going to have one iota of impact on my own health or lifestyle.

Doesn’t matter!

And they will blow the world apart to protect and pursue that perceived sacrosanct right.

But the idea of an individual right to “own the world” is running into some problems these days.

The planet that we all have to live on is rebelling against that notion…as well as are more and more of its inhabitants.

The truth is that this assumed “right” flies in the face of certain facts about our world, some of which only recently have become widely apparent…

1. That all people are connected on this planetary ship, which tends to undercut the conservative, neoliberal, Ayn Randian bent towards absolute individualism, or the idea that the individual person is an island to him or herself and should be free to pursue property (they call it, happiness) to the uttermost limits, as long as he or she is not directly interfering with anyone else’s concomitant right.
2. The conservative masses tend to blindly tow the ideological line that all actions (imperialist wars and interventions, police brutality, unfair trade deals, etc.) in pursuit of the conservative ideal are “good” because they either protect or spread the ideology from or to the unwashed masses. But we now know that all such actions haven’t been good and in fact have unleashed death, destruction and despair throughout the globe.
3. We are now facing the reality of an exhaustible amount of resources in our world, not nearly enough to facilitate the insatiable pursuit of the conservative “property first” ideology. And this coupled with the frightening reality that such pursuit has potentially unleashed uncontrollable environmental forces that could spell the end of us all.

You see, it’s not the collectivist, utopian ideologies that have it all wrong…even though, I neither believe that anyone has it all right.

It’s actually the conservative one that’s completely unrealistic.

It’s the conservative one that’s threatening humanity.

And we should all be frightened about that.

But unlike the schoolyard pussy, we, like Cenk, need to do something about it.

You see, like Cenk, I once was a conservative myself.

I personally know full well how they mask the rotten core of conservatism in religion, and with ideas like “pursuing the American Dream”, along with the patriotic idea of “supporting the troops” without question…which plays right into the hands of the property-driven military-industrial complex.

Nowadays, I truly believe that the conservative ideology is at odds with pretty much everything I consider true about our world.

It’s certainly at odds with the foundational pillars of Impact Mindfulness.

Therefore, I plan to devote the rest of my life towards combatting this dangerous ideology.

image credit: CorinneKennedy via Compfight cc