Compare And Contrast Conservatism And Traditionalism
By the end of World War II, no cohesive conservative force existed in American politics. Rather, various diverse semi-conservative ideologies existed in relative isolation from one another. Conservatism was a weak and unfocused philosophy without a unifying voice. The Right side of the intellectual landscape was so bleak that “the American Conservative has yet to discover conservatism.”
The aimlessness of American conservatism in the mid-1900s can be attributed to the division of conservative thought between two distinct branches: Traditionalism and Classic Libertarianism. Each branch promoted a unique ideology that it saw as the central philosophy of conservative thought. Despite their fundamental differences, the two groups found common ground in an aversion to liberal values and socialism abroad.
Traditionalists catered to groups and individuals that felt neglected by the secular trends that had emerged in a modernizing and materialistic society. They encouraged a reversion to the traditional ‘religious and ethical …show more content…
absolutes’ that had once defined a virtuous American society. Discomforted, or even appalled, by the erosion of American orthodoxy and culture, traditionalists turned to conservative thinkers such as Edmund Burke and Russell Kirk to articulate and defend their convictions. They sought to “to reclaim and civilize the spiritual wasteland created by secular liberalism and by the false gods it had permitted to enter the gates.” Liberalism, to the traditionalists, had precipitated the decline in western civilization. They rallied around the repudiation of both the “the cult of the common man” and the liberal establishment of a mass society.
Classical Libertarianism found its roots in laissez-faire economic principles and was primarily concerned with the threat that an expanding government posed to personal freedom.
Distrustful of Roosevelt’s New Deal policies, classical liberals and libertarians championed free-market principles and condemned what they saw as the government’s march to socialism through central planning. Though he was critical of the overarching ‘conservative’ label, Friedrich Hayek solidified the classical libertarian conviction through his work, The Road to Serfdom, which became a rallying cry for those who opposed an all-powerful centralized government. Hayek claimed that, “economic planning” was not only an imposition on human freedom, but was also, more perilously, “the control of the means for all our ends.” Libertarians criticized the liberal belief in ‘relativism’ and advocated the acceptance of ‘natural right’ in order to avoid irresponsible
nationalism.
Ronald Reagan admitted that “the world of conservatives in the 1950s was diffuse and scattered, without a unifying voice.” Despite several ideological differences, the branches of conservative thought coalesced around a critique of liberal values and a defense of individual liberties and free market principles. Drawing upon the work of Friedrich Hayek, Russell Kirk, and William Buckley, the American intellectual right began to take shape. Brought together by anti-communist sentiment and a collective aversion to social and economic liberalism, conservatives began to establish links between traditionalism and libertarianism and to lay the framework for a distinct conservative identity. However, as these two philosophies converged, several prominent differences persisted. David Critchlow argues that “ideological tensions within the Intellectual Right became apparent only as the movement took shape in the 1950s…”
The aimlessness of American conservatism in the mid-1900s can be attributed to the division of conservative thought between two distinct branches: Traditionalism and Classic Libertarianism. Each branch promoted a unique ideology that it saw as the central philosophy of conservative thought. Despite their fundamental differences, the two groups found common ground in an aversion to liberal values and socialism abroad.
Traditionalists catered to groups and individuals that felt neglected by the secular trends that had emerged in a modernizing and materialistic society. They encouraged a reversion to the traditional ‘religious and ethical …show more content…
absolutes’ that had once defined a virtuous American society. Discomforted, or even appalled, by the erosion of American orthodoxy and culture, traditionalists turned to conservative thinkers such as Edmund Burke and Russell Kirk to articulate and defend their convictions. They sought to “to reclaim and civilize the spiritual wasteland created by secular liberalism and by the false gods it had permitted to enter the gates.” Liberalism, to the traditionalists, had precipitated the decline in western civilization. They rallied around the repudiation of both the “the cult of the common man” and the liberal establishment of a mass society.
Classical Libertarianism found its roots in laissez-faire economic principles and was primarily concerned with the threat that an expanding government posed to personal freedom.
Distrustful of Roosevelt’s New Deal policies, classical liberals and libertarians championed free-market principles and condemned what they saw as the government’s march to socialism through central planning. Though he was critical of the overarching ‘conservative’ label, Friedrich Hayek solidified the classical libertarian conviction through his work, The Road to Serfdom, which became a rallying cry for those who opposed an all-powerful centralized government. Hayek claimed that, “economic planning” was not only an imposition on human freedom, but was also, more perilously, “the control of the means for all our ends.” Libertarians criticized the liberal belief in ‘relativism’ and advocated the acceptance of ‘natural right’ in order to avoid irresponsible
nationalism.
Ronald Reagan admitted that “the world of conservatives in the 1950s was diffuse and scattered, without a unifying voice.” Despite several ideological differences, the branches of conservative thought coalesced around a critique of liberal values and a defense of individual liberties and free market principles. Drawing upon the work of Friedrich Hayek, Russell Kirk, and William Buckley, the American intellectual right began to take shape. Brought together by anti-communist sentiment and a collective aversion to social and economic liberalism, conservatives began to establish links between traditionalism and libertarianism and to lay the framework for a distinct conservative identity. However, as these two philosophies converged, several prominent differences persisted. David Critchlow argues that “ideological tensions within the Intellectual Right became apparent only as the movement took shape in the 1950s…”