Portal:Conservatism
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Introduction
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology, which seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in which it appears. In Western culture, depending on the particular nation, conservatives seek to promote a range of institutions, such as the nuclear family, organized religion, the military, the nation-state, property rights, rule of law, aristocracy, and monarchy. Conservatives tend to favour institutions and practices that enhance social order and historical continuity.
Edmund Burke, an 18th-century Anglo-Irish statesman who opposed the French Revolution but supported the American Revolution, is credited as one of the forefathers of conservative thought in the 1790s along with Savoyard statesman Joseph de Maistre. The first established use of the term in a political context originated in 1818 with François-René de Chateaubriand during the period of Bourbon Restoration that sought to roll back the policies of the French Revolution and establish social order.
Conservatism has varied considerably as it has adapted itself to existing traditions and national cultures. Thus, conservatives from different parts of the world, each upholding their respective traditions, may disagree on a wide range of issues. Historically associated with right-wing politics, the term has been used to describe a wide range of views. Conservatism may be either libertarian or authoritarian, populist or elitist, progressive or reactionary, moderate or extreme. (Full article...)
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V for Vendetta is a ten-issue comic book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated mostly by David Lloyd, set in a dystopian future United Kingdom imagined from the 1980s to about the 1990s. A mysterious masked revolutionary who calls himself "V" works to destroy the totalitarian government, profoundly affecting the people he encounters. Warner Bros. released a film adaptation of V for Vendetta in 2006.
The series depicts a near-future UK after a nuclear war, which has left much of the world destroyed, though most of the damage to the country is indirect, via floods and crop failures. In this future, a fascist party called "Norsefire" has exterminated its opponents in concentration camps and now rules the country as a police state. "V", an anarchist revolutionary dressed in a Guy Fawkes mask (pictured), begins an elaborate, violent, and intentionally theatrical campaign to murder his former captors, bring down the government, and convince the people to rule themselves.
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It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea.
— Robert Anton Wilson, The Illuminati Papers (1980)
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Latin Conservatism is a political ideology in southern Europe that was founded by noted Savoyard thinker Joseph de Maistre and which reached its peak in Spain under Francisco Franco. In contrast to Burkean Conservatism, which originated at about the same time, Latin Conservatism is uncompromising in its belief in the need for order. While Burke supported constitutionalism and some degree of democracy, Maistre, like Thomas Hobbes before him, though with a more religious tone, supported authoritarianism as the only means of avoiding violent disorder. Maistre, a diplomat who had to flee for his life during the French Revolution, became convinced that ultra-liberal ideas, particularly Rousseau's theory of a "general will", had led to the horrors of the French Revolution and the bloodshed of the Napoleonic Wars. In forceful terms he compared the situation of his day to the Book of Genesis.
Credit: Kjetilr
Did you know...
- ... that the film Ronald Reagan called "the worst picture I ever made" inspired Jerry Parr to join the Secret Service, and that Parr saved President Reagan's life during the 1981 assassination attempt?
- ...that the Minute Women of the U.S.A. was a militantly anti-communist organization for American housewives in the 1950s?
- ... that the appointment of Sever Voinescu as Romania's ambassador to the United States was rejected by a Senate committee on grounds that he was too close to Romanian president Traian Băsescu?
Selected anniversaries in May
- 1979 – Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
- 1940 – the Norway Debate in the British House of Commons begins, and leads to the replacement of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain with Winston Churchill three days later.
- 1988 – Section 28 is enacted in Great Britain with the effect of prohibiting the promotion of homosexuality by local authorities.
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