And a very good opinion it is! However:
To take the most obvious example, it is irrelevant that most of today's Fundamentalists were born in metropolitan areas, since their creed is a reaction to the secularization of the dominant culture, which is was promoted by various of the phenomena cited, including urbanization, with its attendant disruption of local customs and cosmopolitanization. The trauma need not be personal. I read, in '89, that there were still a couple of hundred monarchists in France. Do you think that they were not subject to an inherited trauma?
The things that you add to my list are consequences of the larger social currents, although it is appropriate to note them, and to note that conservatives have not always acquitted themselves well concerning them. Newt Gingrich himself said that conservatives were largely on the wrong side on civil rights. However, many of today's conservatives did fight for racial equality, and not only the neo- conservatives, but guys like Charleton Heston and Bob Dornan. Conservatism does not mean adhering to the status quo, but seeking to balance reform against the need for stability and continuity.
I'll bet a know more conservatives than you, so I do not think they are ideal types, but generalizations from my experience...
Nothing to be sorry about, just trying to liven things up! |
