Blade_Runner Loc: DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

Lord have mercy! WTF are you talking about? Utopia is an impossible dream.

Ten Conservative Principles

Edmund Burke, the father of Conservatism

Some of his thoughts:

While he conceded human equality in the eyes of God, he felt no such compunction for equality here on earth.

Respect for a higher power was essential to his philosophy, no matter what the religion. Church and State were inseparable, but in spiritual, not mechanical sense. Both were derived from God.

Individual conscience was meant to be directed by "prescription, presumption and prejudice." (His use of the word "prejudice" had nothing to do with bigotry, but with having a sense of innate "pre-judgment.")

It was not enough to be free. Life had to have meaning as well, and meaning can be found in tradition, folklore and myth.

History was the unfolding of a design wrought by Heaven, of which today's consumerism would be antithetical.

Government finds its authority not on a social contract, but on virtuous principles.

There is a collective intellect, seeped in ancient wisdom, that people inherit and culture safeguards and transmits. We learn about principle through the understanding of nature and history.

maryjane

There will never be any middle ground as long as people such as yourself insist on labeling one entire group smart & good and the other dumb and bad. I once was a liberal but now, of the two choices, must consider myself a conservative, though a moderate one. And not one item mentioned in your description of conservatives applies to me. And, with modesty, I would put my intelligence, education, etc, up against any liberal's, and would put my commonsense, tolerance, and love of country way above that of liberals like yourself.

Loki Loc: Georgia

Well said. Very well said.

Geo

Humanity
Neuroscience Reveals the Differences Between Republican and Democrat Brains
February 1, 2016 | Kelly Tatera

The differences go beyond the ballot box.
It goes without saying that there are very different thought processes going on in the heads of Trump supporters versus Bernie ones, for example. Many might argue that political views are largely shaped by our environments, but it turns out that our neurobiology may significantly contribute to whether we think like Reds or Blues.
Back in 2013, a team of political scientists and neuroscientists got together to study how liberals and conservatives use different parts of the brain when making risky decisions. Their findings suggest that these brain regions can be used to predict which political party an individual prefers, and that being a Republican or Democrat truly does have an influence on how the brain functions.

The researchers looked into a previous study that measured the brain activity of volunteers playing a gambling game, but they separated the data to compare Democrats and Republicans.
SEE ALSO: Left-Brained vs. Right-Brained? Myth Debunked
Interestingly, the opposite groups didn’t differ in the risks they took, but there were striking differences in the brain activities that lit up during the decision-making process. The Democrats showed significantly greater activity in the left insula, a region associated with emotional processing as well as social and self-awareness, while the Republicans showed significantly greater activity in the right amygdala, a region that plays a role in the body’s fight-or-flight system.
This data provides evidence that Democrats and Republicans use different cognitive processes when they think about risk. In fact, the researchers say that the brain activity in these two regions alone could predict whether a person is a Democrat or a Republican with 82.9 percent accuracy — more accurate than using a model based on the political affiliations of an individual’s parents, which is only accurate about 69.5 percent of the time.
"Although genetics have been shown to contribute to differences in political ideology and strength of party politics, the portion of variation in political affiliation explained by activity in the amygdala and insula is significantly larger,” said Dr. Darren Schreiber, a researcher in neuropolitics, “suggesting that affiliating with a political party and engaging in a partisan environment may alter the brain, above and beyond the effect of heredity."
Other research looked at the psychological differences between Republicans and Democrats, finding fundamental differences between things like morals and fears.
“Conservatism, apparently, helps to protect people against some of the natural difficulties of living,” says social psychologist Paul Nail of the University of Central Arkansas. “The fact is we don't live in a completely safe world. Things can and do go wrong. But if I can impose this order on it by my worldview, I can keep my anxiety to a manageable level.”
According to Nail’s research, people of all political persuasions became more conservative in the weeks after September 11, 2001, showing that fear can play a role in driving Republican views.

Interestingly, in another experiment, psychologists reframed climate change as “a threat to the American way of life” and talked up environmental actions as patriotic. The findings showed that the study volunteers who displayed typical conservative traits were much more likely to sign petitions about preventing oil spills and protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge after the issue was spun in such a way.
When it comes to morals, research has found that conservatives are much less likely to budge than liberals. In a 2009 study, over 8,000 people were presented with a series of hypothetical actions, like kicking a dog in the head, cursing at their parents to their faces, or receiving a blood transfusion from a child molester. Participants were asked how much money they would need to receive in order to do those deeds — $10? $100,000? More?
The results showed that the liberals were reluctant to harm a living thing or act unfairly — even for $1 million — but they were more willing to betray group loyalty and disrespect authority for cash. Conservatives, on the other hand, were less willing to compromise on any of the moral categories.
On a surface level, it’s obvious that Republicans and Democrats are different in many ways, but it’s intriguing to delve into the psychology and neuroscience of these differences —

Steve700

E

Makes me happier that I am a Conservative.

Larry the Legend Loc: Not hiding in Milton

Good question. Let's run some definitions and see how they compare:

According to dictionary.com, 'progressive' is defined as "favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to maintain things as they are, especially in political matters".

And for our definition of 'conservative', we turn to wikipedia.com: "Conservatism as a political and social philosophy promotes retaining traditional social institutions in the context of culture and civilization".

Breaking it down to (very) simplistic terms, progressives see greener grass on the other side of the valley, and conservatives are content with the grass on their own side. That, ladies and gentlemen, in a nutshell, is the difference between a progressive and a conservative. So, now that that's all cleared up.....

TexaCan Loc: Homeward Bound!

Absolutely!!! Who wants to eat a 'grey' steak!!! Show me some red!!!!

🐮🐮🐮🐮🐮🐮🐮

dongreen76

Lets all shut up about it.

JimMe

Beef well done is over doing it... Pig Bacon on the other hand is delicious when "crisp,well done, burn it up, tss-tss, when you think it's dead kill it!!!"

kcstargoat

Boy are you messed up in the head. Progressives are Globalists who believe the world should have one big fat government that takes care of everyone. They will control the population, food supply, energy...everything. Oh what a wonderful world it will be!

acknowledgeurma

So it would seem to make sense for the sheep in the fertile pasture to want it fenced off from the barren lands beyond where the greedy goats strive for subsistence.

Bad Bob Loc: Virginia

Is Trump a Globalists?

E

Wrong. Pregressives aren't for progress. That is just a name they use. Actually they are about jumping on any wild idea before it is tested and evaluated, and they are about controlling us and taking away our liberty to there wild ideas. Conservatives are for reasonable slow change so that it can be patiently evaluated and change accordingly for the betterment of the whole while retaining our freedom and liberty and security.

acknowledgeurma

Many years ago, I read a short book on political philosophy [PP] (sorry, don't remember title nor author). The particular aspect of PP addressed was the proper distribution of things of value (wealth, income, power, etc.). In it, PPs were broken down into three categories: conservative, liberal, and radical. As well as I can recall, they were defined as follows:

Conservative - maintain things as they are; as new things of value come into existence, they should be distributed so as not to change the balance

Liberal - distribution of valuables should be based on merit

Radical - to each according to need; from each according to ability

These are broad categories that don't fully address issues of abundance and scarcity, the source of valuables, what constitutes merit, etc. However, I think they provide a better political taxonomy, than the one you have proposed.