Conservatism would be an admirable idea if only its adherents followed it. Fear of change, or at least a wariness about its capacity to lead to unintended suffering, is by no means an irrational emotion. If your society is just about managing, to coin a phrase, it is not reactionary to worry that meddling could take it from bad to worse.
Even those of us who have never voted Conservative can see the wisdom in the conservative philosopher Michael Oakeshott’s description of politics:
‘Men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place nor appointed destination. The enterprise is to keep afloat on an even keel.’
Even now if you read the remarkably self-congratulatory Tory press, conservatives still talk as if they are cautious and sensible men and women who know there is much to fear when you lose your even keel.
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