Introduction
The difference between true conservatism and everything else, which is to say, every form of cultural drunk driving, is the insistence at the outset that there is inescapable, inalienable hierarchy and difference baked into the world. There are fixed realities, and no matter how many times my dog barks at the moon, the moon will not come down, my dog will not grow wings, and it is a complete waste of time for NASA to consider her as an up-and-coming comet.
Some Very Basic Math
Conservatism exists to say with confidence, even a care-free nonchalance, that 4 is a larger number than 3. All. Day. Long. And conservatives are not even sorry about it. Not even a little. We do not mind admitting that it really was a close call from some vantages. From a great distance, 3 millimeters and 4 millimeters hardly seems different at all. But ask a football player or basketball player whether the difference between 3 and 4 quarters matters very much, and you will hear an entirely different story. And if you ask the nuclear physicist, he will probably insist that the millimeters are even more significant than you thought. Do you really want your Lasik eye surgeon to just wing it? Is human government less significant?
I will hasten to add that conservatives are not embarrassed at all by the fact that both 3 and 4 are equally integers. They are both numbers, and they both have an equal value in terms of the broader mathematical project. It would be a sorry world without 3. And in some respects, how would we even get to 4 with it? We are grateful for the equal value of their existence, and we are grateful that their existence expresses entirely different values.
Lies & More Lies
The central problem with every form of progressivism, radicalism, socialism, and spineless conservatism is all the deception. The deception begins by hauling out an abuse of authority (real or imagined), oppression of victims (real or imagined), and it ends with a proposal to make gravity illegal. And because the punchline is a lie, lies inevitably creep back up into the calculus. Since it is not possible to get the outcome they desire, they monkey with the variables. And lies beget more lies.
Follow me closely here: since gravity exists, they cannot really and truly outlaw it. So they propose raising taxes to fund a gravitational climate committee that will regularly meet to determine whether there are too many people living on one side of the planet and thus creating gravitational imbalances. This will require many meetings and subcommittees and researchers and field reports and assistants and secretaries and dinner parties and private jets and mistresses. And as you can no doubt see, at the very least, you will need to pay more taxes (we call them gravitational offsets) if you want to stay there in your cute bungalow in Kansas because gravitational inequalities are real, you science denier.
A Catastrophic Conclusion
True conservatism hauls out the facts at the outset and confesses that nothing whatever can be done about it. Mathematics is real. Gravity exists. Male and female are permanent. Truth, goodness, and beauty are transcendentals. And Boris Johnson needs a haircut. These truths we hold to be self-evident, and the stakes are really very high. Since they are self-evident givens wound through reality, they do not need our assistance to function. They only need our allegiance, our trust. And even then, they do not need us, they merely promise to be our friends if we admit their independent existence. But you cannot fight with reality without disastrous results.
A true conservative refuses to go along with any charade that pretends that lies are true. A true conservative will sacrifice all popularity and prestige, even his political career for the sake of truth. The fact that you have most Republicans celebrating governments full of women tells you that we currently only have two radical parties to choose from, and we do not currently have a man willing to say that the difference between 3 and 4 is glorious and catastrophic.
Photo by Nick Owuor (astro.nic.visuals) on Unsplash
Juan M. Manriquez says
Came out swinging since the beginning, and didn’t miss the final KO hook. Praise God for faithful, godly, and clear Biblical truth walking on two legs.