Conservative and Liberal
"Unless you actively try to reduce the national debt, you are anti-American, a liberal pinko, and a traiter to your country!" My conservative friend thundered these words, and I agreed with them. It was 1955.
"If you vote against civil rights for all Americans, you are a Facist conservative, a traitor to everything the United States of America stands for." My liberal friend spoke these words with vehemence, and I agreed with them. It was 1967.
I still almost agree with them. As I have come to better understand life I have come to leave the label "conservative" and "liberal" out of my conversation most of the time. At any give time on any given day I am both a liberal and a conservative -- and, I believe, so are you.
The word "liberal" has roots in the Latin word, "liberalis" meaning "free". So does the word "liberty". Although there are a few people who do not believe in liberty, at least for themselves, most of us are passionately attached to the concept of liberty -- freedom. Christians have no choice, if they let Galatians 5:1 speak to them. "For freedom Christ has set you free. Do not submit again to a yoke of slavery" it says. Isn't it interesting that one of the most right-wing groups I had the privilege of knowing several years ago were called the "Freedom Fighters." Liberals, every one of them!
Well, not by their self-definition. They believed they were conservatives, trying to save the "traditional value" of freedom. John Birch Society members were liberals, from where they stood. Ordinary citizens, Democrats, and most politicians and main-line church members were Communists.
We know better now, don't we. The citizenry elected Ronald Reagan, once a spokesperson for the John Birch Society as president. We elected George W. Bush, the tool of right-wing conservatives to set the nation back on course. So, we are conservatiives. All of us. Conservatives!
You don't think so?
My friend, Ron, expressed himself, identified himself, and presented himself as a Liberal. He knew what a Liberal was, and he epitimized what he knew. One person said to him, tellingly, "Ron, you are so conservative about your liberalism!" And he was. There was no liberty to be a different kind of liberal, a growing liberal, a changing liberal. He was, in fact, very conservative -- about his liberalism!
One morning I was raising the flag for the institution for which I worked. An employee, who had never served in the Armed Forces, accused me of being a Communist because I "did it wrong". (I did it the way I had been taught in the US Navy.) Later that day another person accused me of being a John Birch Society member because of my views on fiscal responsibility. It was a day of wonder!
As I have continued to wonder, I believe that each of us is a mixture of liberal and conservative. We may disagree, even with our past selves, who should be liberated and what the boundaries, if any, are for the liberated person or society. We may also disagree, even with our past selves (and future selves) about that which should be conserved. What value, process, belief or actrivity from our human history should we conserve? If we conserve something, can it change to fit the ever emerging culture and language?
Example: some producers of Sheakspeare's plays insist that they must be done in Elizabethan English, costume and settings. Others insist that they must retain the Elizabethan English but can be put in modern or nearly modern costumes and settings. I remember one production of "Taming of the Shrew" set in Wild West cowboy costumes but retaining the original English of Sheakspeare's writing.
I wonder what a "true" conservative would believe?
Think about yourself a moment: what areas of freedom will you cling to and even give your life for? What values and actions do you passionately need to conserve? In what ways are you, like me, both a liberal and a conservative?
We have all been raised to believe we must take a position or succumb to general apathy and "drop out" of our social, cultural milieu.
No problem -- but the "positions" we seem to choose between are seldom valid. What if we don't have to choose between conservative or liberal, capitalist or communist, Christian or Muslim, etc. What if there are other choices that require us to THINK, REFLECT, and build a position that is uniquely our own?