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>What Is Conservatism and What Is Wrong with It?
>
>Philip E. Agre
>August 2004
>
>Web version: <http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/conservatism.html>
>
>
>Liberals in the United States have been losing political debates to
>conservatives for a quarter century. In order to start winning again,
>liberals must answer two simple questions: what is conservatism, and
>what is wrong with it? As it happens, the answers to these questions
>are also simple:
>
> Q: What is conservatism?
> A: Conservatism is the domination of society by an aristocracy.
>
> Q: What is wrong with conservatism?
> A: Conservatism is incompatible with democracy, prosperity, and
> civilization in general. It is a destructive system of inequality
> and prejudice that is founded on deception and has no place in the
> modern world.
>
>These ideas are not new. Indeed they were common sense until
>recently. Nowadays, though, most of the people who call themselves
>"conservatives" have little notion of what conservatism even is.
>They have been deceived by one of the great public relations campaigns
>of human history. Only by analyzing this deception will it become
>possible to revive democracy in the United States.
>
>//1 The Main Arguments of Conservatism
>
> >From the pharaohs of ancient Egypt to the self-regarding thugs of
>ancient Rome to the glorified warlords of medieval and absolutist
>Europe, in nearly every urbanized society throughout human history,
>there have been people who have tried to constitute themselves as
>an aristocracy. These people and their allies are the conservatives.
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