The Conservative Liberal

“And just what,” you may ask, “is conservative liberalism?”

Conservatism and liberalism are two different things; two different views and perspectives, but they are not diametrically opposed and mutually exclusive views and perspectives. The principles of conservatism embody the duties and responsibilities of the individual, both to himself or herself as well as to the rest of the members of a civilized society. The principles of liberalism embody the duties and responsibilities of a civilized society to the individual members of the society. It has been partisan electoral politics that has defined conservatism and liberalism as being diametrically opposed and mutually exclusive.

Rather than being conflicting and in opposition, conservatism and liberalism are complementary and synergistic in their value to free people who live in a nation that was founded based on the principle that the citizens of a nation have certain unalienable rights that cannot be infringed upon or restricted by the nation’s governments. Conservatism and liberalism are complimentary and synergistic in a nation in which it is implicit in the nation’s founding documents that each citizen of the nation has unalienable rights that cannot be infringed upon and degraded by other members of the national society.

Conservative liberalism values individual liberties but recognizes that individual liberties that are exercised without limits by one person in a society can trespass on and be destructive to the liberties of other members of the society. Put simply, my individual liberties end where yours begin, while, at the same time, yours end where mine begin.

Conservative liberalism values the freedom of the individual but also recognizes that individual freedom comes with individual duties to the other members of a free society and to the other citizens in a nation of free people. Conservative liberalism recognizes that individual freedom comes with a duty to protect, maintain and sustain the nation as a free nation of free people.

Conservative liberalism values individual rights but concurrently recognizes that individual rights come with individual responsibilities. It is the responsibility of each individual citizen of a free nation and a free society to ensure that every citizen in good standing can avail and exercise the same individual liberties, individual freedom and individual rights as every other citizen in good standing. It is the collective responsibility of today’s citizens who enjoy the liberties, freedoms and rights of free people in a free nation to preserve and protect the individual liberties, rights and freedom and ensure that the same individual liberties, rights and freedom are available to and can be exercised by future generations of citizens in a free nation of free people.

I am an environmentalist. I am also a realist.

I am not the kind of environmentalist who tools around in an elephant-sized SUV with a “Save The Earth” bumper sticker on the back. Nor am I the kind of environmentalist who attends meetings with other environmentalists where they engage in a group mullygrubbing session about someone cutting trees in a forest somewhere. In fact, I like having a house to live in. If someone hadn’t cut some trees somewhere then there would have been no lumber to build my house.

I am the kind of environmentalist who grew up in the ‘40s and ‘50s on a little one horse farm in the mountains of Western North Carolina. That was a time and place and in circumstances that were such that every day there were constant reminders that we are totally dependent on the planet, the planet’s natural resources and natural processes for our existence.

In our modern mechanized, automated and industrialized nation where we are totally surrounded by technological devices of all kinds it has been easy to lose sight of the fact that the fundamental conditions for our continued existence have not changed since humans have been on the planet. We are still just as dependant on the natural resources and processes of the planet for our existence as were our hunter-gatherer ancestors. The goal is still the same: Acquire the resources from the planet that we need to support our lives, standards of living and lifestyles. Our scientific knowledge and the technological machines and devices that have been developed using our scientific knowledge have enabled us to raise our standards of living and our lifestyles to levels that not even our ancestors of a century and a half ago would have imagined even in their wildest fantasizing about the future.

But we do have a very real problem that we simply must be willing to get face to face with. All of our technological machines and devices do just one thing for us. They enable us to make indirect beneficial use of sources of energy and kinds of energy that we are not biologically able to use directly and beneficially. Our essential needs have not changed one iota. The only thing that has been changed by our modern technologies of all kinds is the means and methods of acquiring the resources that are essential to our existence.

The fundamental natural force that provides the energy that we use to drive, control and direct almost all of our technological devices of all kinds is the exact same fundamental natural force that provides the energy to make the spark that makes the difference between us being alive and being dead. All of our technological devices of all kinds are as totally dependent upon nature, natural resources and natural processes to be able to operate and perform the tasks that they were designed to perform as we are to be able to sustain and maintain life.

Life, standards of living and lifestyles exist and can only exist where energy, water and the other natural resources that are essential to life come together in confluence in a way that life, standards of living and lifestyles can be maintained and sustained. Need I say that if and when the essential natural resources have been used and depleted then both we and our machines will stop working?

And don’t you forget it again!

This has been a message from the conservative environmentalist.