Placing Universalism

Universalist ethics help basic survival for any and all groups. There is also a need for more specific, regional variety to avoid stagnation and sameness, and here, if the universalist ethics of religion (or international Marxism) are not to be accused of closing off creativity and variety, adapting the Thomistic idea of primary and secondary conservation can be applied.

Secondary conservatism defends fundamental, universal, ethics such as those which help all groups survive, as well as personal individual ethics which help the individual survive. Primary conservatism accepts specific group ethics, which can help specific groups survive. The group is and has been the main unit of evolutionary selection. One does not have to ignore variety while upholding universal ethics. The principles of subsidiarity and federalism follow this kind of social philosophy, which unifies universal, specific and personal ethics.