By Darren Mcvey
“I wish anarchy wasn’t so flawed.” This is the text message I received from my buddy Scotty at 2 a.m. on a Wednesday night.
And with that random bit of insight, I suddenly realized why I am so reluctantly conservative.
While I understand anarchism is not liberalism, they are similar in that their ideas appeal to that universal sense of hope and idealism.
John Lennon captured all of this hope and idealism in “Imagine.”
No borders or divisions. No money or greed. No extortion and oppression. It’s an idealist’s manifesto.
What is essential to this imagination, however, is a healthy dose of gullibility.
The visions of collectivism, universal peace and egalitarian prosperity only work in the absence of human depravity.
Recognition of our depravity is the dividing line between those that live in the real world and those that live in a dream world. Idealism assumes all people are basically good.
Every “bad” person is an otherwise good person that has been corrupted by the capitalist, consumerist, nationalist, religious system in which they were conditioned.
Inner-city criminals are reacting to poverty. Radical Muslims are reacting to Western oppression. Backward red necks are reacting out of ignorance.
In the effort to explain the undesirable qualities of other cultures, idealists neglect that not even they are a good people. The idea of a collectivist society relies on brotherly trust between all citizens.
Once oppressive governments are removed from the equation, people will be free to exercise restraint, compassion and cooperation.
This is why governments were established in the first place, people can’t behave themselves.
They are a necessary component of society. People need law and order to have law and order.
It is easy for one to demonize crooked CEOs, egotistical tyrants and oppressive aristocrats, but reflecting inward, the only difference between their evil and my own, is scale.
I have been guilty of manipulation to further my own will. And I hate to judge my dear readers, but you have too.
If I cannot trust myself to behave in the relatively free society in which I now live, how can I trust my fellow man to behave without the minimal authority present today?
I only drive responsibly because cops lurk around the corner. I only practice restraint in anger because punitive deterrents are ubiquitous. In truth, I only practice charity out of pride. I like the feeling of doing something good.
These realizations are what leads me to be conservative, albeit reluctantly.
Most conservative positions are rooted in the reality of human depravity.
That is why being conservative is so depressing sometimes.
I hate war, but evil exists and must be fought. I hate poverty, but cultivating dependence endorses laziness. I hate authority, but even I push the boundaries of lenient laws. I hate reality, but I hate simplicity more.
The world is full of both do-gooders and evil-doers. There is no joy in a world view that centers on the containment of evil urges.
There’s no satisfaction in that I am as much a part of the problem as anyone else. There is no way around reality.
And this is what leads to the guilty conscience of a conservative.
