Talking of Sigmund, I just stumbled on what could be a good psychological profile of Neoconservatives....
Conservatism: The Politics of Ignorance
A personal essay in hypertext by Scott Bidstrup
"Why should we subsidize intellectual curiosity?"
-- Ronald Reagan, campaign speech, 1980
"There is nothing that can better deserve our patronage than science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness"
--George Washington, address to congress, January 8, 1790
Conservatism Defined
Conservatism is variously defined, but most generally, dictionary definitions come down to the idea that the values and ideas of the past (and to some degree the present) should be "conserved" (hence the name) and not abandoned.
To me, it seems that this definition is inadequate. Conservatism goes beyond merely conserving the past; it also is uneasy with change, even suspicious of it, and is reluctant to embrace it. There is a certain fear among conservatives that change won't necessarily add to the quality of life and should therefore be viewed with suspicion.
Conservatism often expresses nostalgia for a supposed better, simpler time. In the United States, the 1950's are often considered a golden age by many conservatives. It was an era of conservative control of the American presidency, and much, if not most of the state and local governments of the era were controlled by conservative politicians. They point proudly to the economic growth that occurred in the U.S. during that period has few parallels in American history, even though that growth was largely due to the large market for American goods and services on world markets, and the lack of competition from Europe and Japan, who were still rebuilding from the devastation of World War II.
Additionally, conservatism holds a rather cynical view of government and its place in the lives of its citizens. Conservatives generally express the view that government is most generally part of the problem and not the solution. Government is often blamed by conservatives for a wide variety of maladies, even though government may not even have any significant involvement with a particular problem for which it is being blamed.
Conservative economics generally revolve around the idea that the best economic model is a form of capitalism based on principles they call "free enterprise." This economic model supplements the view that government power is normally counterproductive by extending that concept to a cynical view of government involvement in the marketplace. Most conservatives take as their economic model Adam Smith's 18th-century treatise on economics, "The Wealth of Nations," which for the first time expounded a coherent theory of free-enterprise capitalism. It argued that the market works best which is interfered with least, an idea that has a great deal of appeal to someone with an inherent mistrust of the power of government. [...]
Full essay:
pe.net
Oh, btw, Neoconservatism can be fairly approximated by the following formula:
Neoconservatism = Conservatism + the Internet (or just any other sexy concept). |
