On Conservatism

I love America and feel patriotic toward my country. I take my stand with those who see the government mainly as a protector of the freedom and liberty of the individual states within the light federalism of the government. This includes government protection of our manufacturing base, which free-market libertarians don't agree with. I approve of the creative free-enterprise system, but there is a limit to economic growth related to dwindling resources, and to survival ethics, and this still needs to be understood by the free-enterprise philosophy.

The split among conservatives really began in the 1950's and 1960's, between Russell Kirk and Willmoore Kendall, that is, between traditional, ordered, religious-grounded society, and free-market ultra-individualism.

In the 1970's the “neoconservatives” crossed over from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party in protest against the antiwar movement, and also in dual support of Israel and the United States. The neocons strongly influence the big-government, war-interventions of the Bush years. They also more or less rejected from the Republican establishment Russell Kirk-oriented "paleoconservatives," like Pat Buchanan and Thomas Fleming.

The Republican Party establishment continues to support many neoconservative programs and has persuaded many social conservatives, using religious interpretations of the end times, to go along with their military adventures in the Middle East and elsewhere. The libertarian wing of conservatism does oppose these foreign military interventions, even if many of their members don't mind the foreign interventions of global corporations.

Evolution is sacred in my religious philosophy, yet my position on change and order relate well to the slow and careful changes affirmed by Burke and Kirk. The future goal of evolving to Godhood requires a degree of change over time that Burke and Kirk would not affirm, but successful survival and evolution takes place best in stable conservative societies, where positive mutations have the chance to be incorporated in the gene pool.

The decentralization of the states from the central government relate well to evolutionary variety and natural cooperative competition. If given the proper independence affirmed by the original United States Constitution, the growth of multiple ethnic groups and cultures can be accommodated in the various states of the union.

And finally, the religious roots of society, emphasized by Burke and Kirk, is affirmed in the Twofold Path of the Theoevolutionary Church. But this requires a Revitalized Conservatism which includes the goal of Ordered Evolution all the way to Godhood. The God first seen, and mirrored, in the Inward Path of traditional religion, is the Godhood of the Outward Path evolved to in the cosmos.