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Can you be a left wing conservative?

I basically subscribe to a lot of the anarchist, Marxist, socialist etc view of what is wrong with human society and the economic/political order. I just don't know how it could be changed and I am reluctant to get behind any grand plan to change it or even know what I would like the end point to look like. Just need to look at history to see how wrong that can go.

Here are some conservative quotes.

"The political leader knows in advance that all change, however well intentioned, will disrupt the social fabric, with unforeseeable and potentially serious negative consequences. Still more is this true of sweeping, radical change…For radical change to be genuinely worthwhile, it must bring overwhelming social benefit, or be the product of the most extreme necessity. "

"Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them. Operations of thought are like cavalry charges in a battle they are strictly limited in number, they require fresh horses, and must only be made at decisive moments. "

I think there is a lot of sense in the above quote and I think that in order for things to change properly it needs to change from below in how people behave and act. I think the role top down management is to poke the "below" to steer it in a direction you would like and react to unintended consequences of the development in where we would like society to be steered.

Am I a left wing conservative? Is that even possible? I think I agree with conservatives on the dangers of fast change or humans attempting to consciously control human societies/economics. However I disagree with what is acceptable to just let happen and I am not at all happy with how things are at the moment. I also think most self described conservatives let a lot of injustices just slide that are unacceptable for me. They are also not very conservative imo, they often want radical change but in another direction. Take the EU as an example. Many conservatives wanted us to leave but I the above conservative quote leads to the conclusion that we should have stayed in the EU. Or conservatives who do not like LGBT rights and the growing tolerance of such people and want to somehow enforce a reverting of the clock.

Christopher Hitchins described himself as a conservative Marxist. Is he an example of a left wing conservative?
(edited 7 years ago)
Well I think you can hold a specific set of ideals, but recognise that they may not be good to implement atm and compromise on them for the sake of practicality, yes.
I was rather expecting to see a tendency towards 'nation', 'tradition' and general social conservatism while running left-wing economics, which is of course possible and we all know the famous historical examples. However, with what you have described I see some conflictions in economics. When you're advanced in Marxian eco you'll see the contradictions in your last paragraph. This is too broad to explain on here, I can PM you the lectures/readings.
You can hold socially conservative views (anti abortion etc.) while holding beliefs in strong government. Not saying that you are, but it sounds somewhat similar to the fascist movements in iIaly and the Weimar republic.
Wouldn't say conservative, that would suggest that you don't want to see change, which it seems you do.

Would maybe say you were a reformist as opposed to a revolutionary socialist/whatever.


In principal however, yes I do think you can be a left-wing conservative.
The world is run by left-wing conservatives; the progressive-left.
Original post by Gora The Xplorer
The world is run by left-wing conservatives; the progressive-left.


What are you on about, the progressives are going insane creating new privileges and genders. That's the antithesis of conservatism, although they are no doubt very autocratic.
Not really I suppose you could be a liberal conservative or more centreright than far right 😃
Reply 8
Not really
of course - most conservatives tend to be pretty left wing in my opinion
and most labourites are very conservative and traditionalist too
yeah
you can have left-wing social views and free market economic views. these are what u call progressive conservatives.
Reply 11
If you're open to change provided certain conditions are met (you have a reasonable idea of what the result looks like, how to get there and how much better than the current system it is), then I don't think you're a conservative: you're just being logical.

History demonstrates that the moral progress which conservatives have always tried to hold back has occurred without disastrous consequences. But, it's a slow process - history has shown that it has to occur gradually. As Martin Luther King said: "the arc of history is long, but it bends towards justice".
Original post by ChaoticButterfly
I basically subscribe to a lot of the anarchist, Marxist, socialist etc view of what is wrong with human society and the economic/political order. I just don't know how it could be changed and I am reluctant to get behind any grand plan to change it or even know what I would like the end point to look like. Just need to look at history to see how wrong that can go.

Here are some conservative quotes.

"The political leader knows in advance that all change, however well intentioned, will disrupt the social fabric, with unforeseeable and potentially serious negative consequences. Still more is this true of sweeping, radical change…For radical change to be genuinely worthwhile, it must bring overwhelming social benefit, or be the product of the most extreme necessity. "

"Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them. Operations of thought are like cavalry charges in a battle they are strictly limited in number, they require fresh horses, and must only be made at decisive moments. "

I think there is a lot of sense in the above quote and I think that in order for things to change properly it needs to change from below in how people behave and act. I think the role top down management is to poke the "below" to steer it in a direction you would like and react to unintended consequences of the development in where we would like society to be steered.

Am I a left wing conservative? Is that even possible? I think I agree with conservatives on the dangers of fast change or humans attempting to consciously control human societies/economics. However I disagree with what is acceptable to just let happen and I am not at all happy with how things are at the moment. I also think most self described conservatives let a lot of injustices just slide that are unacceptable for me. They are also not very conservative imo, they often want radical change but in another direction. Take the EU as an example. Many conservatives wanted us to leave but I the above conservative quote leads to the conclusion that we should have stayed in the EU. Or conservatives who do not like LGBT rights and the growing tolerance of such people and want to somehow enforce a reverting of the clock.

Christopher Hitchins described himself as a conservative Marxist. Is he an example of a left wing conservative?

.
Yes as a political ideology its called statism
Yes- If we assume that the political/economic spectrum is split into Authoritarian/Liberal and Left/Right or Economic views/social views

Just as one can identify as someone who supports free markets, but at the same time for example, gay marriage and abortion, one can also support economic planning and also be socially conservative.

Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev for example, supported further development of the command economy, however was deeply socially conservative, especially compared to Khrushchev and Gorbachev.

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