What makes a consevative a conservative?

[Razgovory]

Serious and honest to God question.  There are hundreds of conservative parties or right-wing parties in the world, how ever they are often at odds with one another and believe different things.  What is the underlying idea of idea behind them all?  What is the conservatism at it's most basic?  I'm using Right-wing and Conservative interchangeably here, though I'm not sure if that's correct.

[Valmy]

I honestly have no idea.  The "conservatives" in the US have seemed pretty radical actually in the last couple decades.  Not necessarily a bad thing but certainly not "conservative" by any stretch.

[Habbaku]

I don't know, what's a "consevative," Tim?

[Barrister]

What is the conservatism at it's most basic?

Have I taught you people nothing in the decade plus I have been here?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Burke

[The Brain]

I'm using Right-wing and Conservative interchangeably here, though I'm not sure if that's correct.

It is not.

[Razgovory]

What is the conservatism at it's most basic?

Have I taught you people nothing in the decade plus I have been here?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Burke

  No seriously.  There are many right-wing movements around the world that nothing to do with Burke.

[Josquius]

They don't like change unless its back towards the way things were in their imagined good old days.

[11B4V]

Cant answer directly Raz. I used to be solidly to the right. Not wackadoddle of the nowadays right. Half way between center and wackadoodle.  (Reagan era I guess) I dont know.

I dont relate to the GOP of today. I see myself as center, listing 5 degrees to the left now.

I am a civil servant. IMO only Dems= Big Govmint, which to me equates to job security.

[Tamas]

IDK.

Especially in Europe. Shouldn't Social Democracy be labelled as "conservative" after 50 years of it's unhindered rule?

[The Brain]

The problem is that people will never pick labels that actually describe their opinions. Conservatives don't think that "Young Earthers" will win them elections, and Lefties don't like "Communist scum". Therefore we get these vague terms with many meanings.

[Razgovory]

Wikipedia had an interesting answer, though I'm not sure if I buy it.  Would make sense though.

There have been a lot of conservatives through out history, some bad some not so bad.  I'm wondering what the common string is between Sulla and Eisenhower, Churchill and Hitler.

[The Brain]

Wikipedia had an interesting answer, though I'm not sure if I buy it.  Would make sense though.

There have been a lot of conservatives through out history, some bad some not so bad.  I'm wondering what the common string is between Sulla and Eisenhower, Churchill and Hitler.

You're not seriously claiming that Hitler was a conservative?

[Viking]

Wikipedia had an interesting answer, though I'm not sure if I buy it.  Would make sense though.

There have been a lot of conservatives through out history, some bad some not so bad.  I'm wondering what the common string is between Sulla and Eisenhower, Churchill and Hitler.

You're not seriously claiming that Hitler was a conservative?

Hitler was not a conservative in any way what so ever, he was a radical idealist or a radical reactionary on virtually every issue. There was virtually nothing about German Weimar society that he approved of. Everything must be changed and either returned to some magical state (often invented by hitler and rosenberg) in the past or advanced to a idealized future.

But then again, that is probably the point you were trying to make. 

[Richard Hakluyt]

In the context of this conversation I'd suggest that the converse of "conservative" is "radical". Hitler was clearly a radical.

[Viking]

I honestly have no idea.  The "conservatives" in the US have seemed pretty radical actually in the last couple decades.  Not necessarily a bad thing but certainly not "conservative" by any stretch.

The really funny thing here is that radical and conservative are opposites. The thing is that there are many different axis in politics, many more than the right left axis of the romantic revolutionaries (or even the digital marxian system of 100% revolutionary vs 100% reactionary with the reactionaries being implicitly supported by the bourgeois majority in the middle) or even the two axis system of your online libertarian "Are you a libertarian?" internet quiz. The thing is we too easily in the marxian manner ascribe opposites to opponents. It's almost as if the two parties, one demanding that we buy apples for lunch and the other demanding we buy oranges, cause us to think that apples and oranges are opposites.

Words have meaning and these meanings have consequences. First, regarding Burke. Burke was not a conservative he was a liberal in the classical sense. He coins the term and defines it not in order to preserve (or conserve as the origin of the term suggests) but rather to establish a methodology by which the liberal can dismantle authoritarian society and replace it with an improved ideal without happening to fall into revolution and terror as he saw in France. A Burkeian Conservative is a Liberal that doesn't overthrow a traditional institution because it is bad, but because he can replace it with something better.

But, to lean on Burke in defining the term. A conservative is somebody who places the burden of proof on the person advocating for reform and in the case of uncertainty defaults to the existing institution, even if he thinks it is flawed.

The opposite of Conservative is Radical, though a Radical is often also somebody who has accepted that the case for change has been made.