Herein lies the unsolvable dichotomy of progressive versus conservative:
The former wish to change and control every aspect of the lives of others so that universal conformance to an undefined (thus unobtainable) ideal may be “achieved.” The latter wish to be left to their own devices to pursue happiness as they each determine — cooperating when it serves their individual desires.
There are others who often describe, much more eloquently than I do/can, this ideological divide as one that is unbridgeable. The progressive is willing to dominate by any means necessary; whereas, the conservative, by definition, does not promote dominance so he is always on the defense. In fact, the conservative is at risk of succumbing to progressive ideals when dominance is the objective.
“A republic, if you can keep it” is often attributed to Benjamin Franklin as a reply to an individual’s inquiry of the form of government defined by the Founders. Unfortunately, too many have accepted the idea that the United States of America is a democracy, and even Mikhail Gorbachev declared in his 1987 Perestroika that, “according to Lenin, socialism and democracy are indivisible…. The essence of perestroika lies in the fact that it unites socialism with democracy [emphasis in the original] and revives the Leninist concept…. We want more socialism and, therefore, more democracy.”
The next time some ignorant individual promotes the increase of democracy within our country, just remind him that even totalitarians, both current and past, want the same in order to increase their power — consider the current cult, promoted by our uneducated youth, of democratic socialism.
2 replies on “The unsolvable dichotomy of progressive versus conservative”
Harris’ full on Marxist “Equality vs. Equity” video proposes that we all end up in the same place.
I won’t say that such is flatly impossible… but I will say that the only way it’s possible is to utterly exterminate individuality.
I will unabashedly-extend your assertion to say that the extermination of humanity is necessary to achieve such a Marxist objective. Even the authors of the “machines” in the Matrix movies understood that a complete deception is required to control humans to such an extent, and once such deception is revealed humanity violently resists such tyranny.