I'm not going to attribute this quote just yet but will leave it anonymous for now.
"When I think of the soul of Anglo-American conservatism, I think of limited government, incremental change, a concern for social cohesion, and a defense of old-school liberalism — a free press, free speech, free association, free markets, freedom of religion.
I think of a government eager to ensure that capitalism can work without excessive government intervention, but also a dedication to enforcing the integrity of the market — busting monopolies, regulating stock markets, prosecuting corruption. I think of a conservatism that enforces borders, but has no issue with vibrant, moderate immigration."
This is very close to my personal viewpoint.
Any thoughts from others?
and do not really exist. Thus if people debate the meaning of them there is no authority to adjudicate the dispute and create a final ruling, it is instead a thing that is always in contestation, socially, and thus is not fixed over time. It is all a Ship of Theseus or Grandfather’s Axe, there is no ultimate metaphysics to define the essence of the word, it remains in flux. Language and social constructs are rivers not ice cubes. We are talking about narratives here, stories, put another way.
Adrian Veidt: I did the right thing, didn't I? It all worked out in the end.
Dr. Manhattan: "In the end?" Nothing ends, Adrian. Nothing ever ends. (He turns to vapor, mist, aka the Hebrew word for vanity is Hebel and it means breath (5), delusion (2), emptily (1), emptiness (2), fleeting (2), fraud (1), futile (1), futility (13), idols (7), mere breath (2), nothing (1), useless (1), vain (3), vainly (1), vanity (19), vanity of vanities (3), vapor (1), worthless (2). but also Hebel is the name of Abel of Genesis.)
The etymology of the word conservatism from a popular standpoint is a 1953 book by Russell Kirk. 1st edition The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Santayana, thou subsequent editions have updated Santayana to other more recent names.
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The isms words are social constructs…
We had this argument in the past over the meaning of the word socialism. Well it has no fixed meaning and has meant several different things in the context of different writers and speakers. But we are talking the 1830s for this word but there is no agreed upon origin of who made it prominent but it was suddenly everywhere.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/socialism
Socialism is not always about assets held by the public or the government David Ricardo’s socialism (he died 1823) is different than other ideas
Likewise Communism is 1840, 1841, and 1843, though you can argue earlier than that.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/communism#etymonline_v_17248
Capitalism was originally a term of insult and derision much like how the 1950s meritocracy word comes from a book which is a satire and dystopia. But then a different group of people used it as a term of endearment but we are talking 1872 and 1877 for it to become popular and in a more academic sense we can trace an earlier origin to 1854.
https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=capitalism
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Words have meaning in relation to the world, and in relation to another. Good vs Well and Good vs Evil for example are two different forms of the Good. Likewise Good vs Bad.
Your soul is in conversation with other souls, it is your breath, some things both material and language are stripped away and are lost to time as in vanity, others remain yet are transformed by the remaining. This is the way of the world