Thursday, March 15, 2007

Liberalism and Conservatism as Unjust Worldly Ideologies

Finishing up my very interesting time in Dr. David T. Koyzis' POL-122 A Introduction to Political Ideologies class here at Redeemer University College, I note his book used as the class text "Political Visions and Illusions", I had actually read before coming to Redeemer and entering the actual class of the writer, goes into great detail with liberalism, the development of which its unique ideology can be found in five stages being first the civil and ecclesiastical commonwealth within a state of nature under the absolute sovereign power of the Leviathan via social contract of Hobbes, then a night watchman state, into a regulatory state, to an equal opportunity state and finally the choice enhancement state.

Every move from selflessness forward progressively expands the state into both the community and its individual sovereign held rights and responsibilities, changing terms within the originally agreed upon social contract with no guarantees of any further renegification on those original terms thus alluding justice, government is meant to stay as small as possible, but taxation and servicing through representation must grow, with abuses from greed come need for reformation and renewal of the system, towards both egalitarianism and commoditism then eventually selfishness.

Where I would like to add my two bits is that while Dr. K argues to know the kind of conservatism a certain type of conservative is one must ask the question "What do you want to conserve?", I believe similarly one can know the kind of liberalism a type of liberal is by asking the question "What do you want to liberate?", likewise I think conservatism has five stages as well, being the mirror opposite of liberalism, therefore would go from the choice enhancement state, to an equal opportunity state, into a regulatory state, then a night watchman state until it too accepted Hobbes idea of a civil and ecclesiastical commonwealth within a state of nature under a social contract preserved by the absolute sovereign power of the Leviathan, however one thing about both conservatism and liberalism is, the individualism of the former in its fifth stage and latter in its first and the collectivism of the former in its first and the latter in its fifth can not do justice for the responsibilities of the community in the first grouping and rights of the individual in the last, thus loses its transparancy, accountability and honesty as ideologies within the politics of the people.