At all times, in any country, there were different, sometimes sharply opposing views on the same problem, event, or some kind of teaching. By belonging to one of the parties, parties were formed, the confrontation of which among themselves forces, ultimately, any formation to develop and move forward.
Unity of Extremes
Absolutely all there are different views, conservatism was no exception. Opponents, for whom this word is almost abusive, consider it a commitment to everything bony and obsolete, a log on the path to progress, and his follower a routine, a reactionary, an old-fashioned man. Supporters consider themselves the guardians of cultural and spiritual traditions, the public world order. The conservative is, first of all, the antipode to the revolutionary, a supporter of gradual progress on the basis of the safety of what has been achieved.
The emergence of the concept
The etymology of a word meaning an ideological commitment to traditional values sends researchers to the French noun conservatisme, which is derived from the Latin verb conservo, which means "save." As a term that defines a certain view, it was first used by a French writer, a representative of romanticism, François Rene de Châteaubriand, who since 1818 began to publish a journal under the same name. In the periodical "Conservative" not only the views of elite groups of feudal society, dissatisfied with revolutionary innovations, were set forth, but, first of all, conservatism was positioned as an integrated holistic worldview system with a certain perception of the world, based on a person’s natural desire to stabilize, strengthen and maintain habitual habitat.
Conservative is not always retrograde
There can be nothing wrong with the ability to store as such. Thanks to the preservation of humanity, there are traditions, the memory of the ancestors, the history of countries and the planet as a whole. In the best sense of the word, a conservative is a person who realizes that without a past there is no future. Such people, as a rule, are cautious, but not the fact that they perceive everything new with hostility. But there are always and everywhere extremes - and the guardians of traditions turn, at best, into "Old Believers", and at worst into obscurantists. The term denoting such a community of people acquires negative traits and becomes a household word. And then, even on an ordinary person, an adherent of a normal, nature-based, traditional lifestyle that does not perceive gay parades, the label “conservative” is hung. This is not even extremes. This is cynicism. Or an ailment with which society will be ill and will continue to move towards a brighter future, having, as it always has, different, opposite, sharply polemic views and theories.
Defined belief system
The very system of views, called conservatism, arose as a response not to the French Revolution, but to the enormous amount of blood shed by it. The years 1792-1794 in world history are known as the years of horror. That is, an ideological trend called conservatism arose as a natural defensive reaction of society, when it saw a crowd execute a monarch in a fit of madness, and then people who pushed her to commit a crime. In this case, the conservative is a person who sided with the values that have been tested and justified by time, the basic of which is the rule of law and the gradual development of society.
Party birth
The belief system under the influence of the most prominent people of that time was formed into a party that has been in power in many countries of Europe since the Restoration, that is, after the restoration of Bourbon power - 1814-1830. But in England, a party preaching these views was born in the 17th century, after its Restoration, after Cromwell. And it was called “Tory”, and in 1832, on its own initiative, was renamed “conservative”. At the time of its inception, the party was progressive in nature, as it fought against religious obscurantism - in 1677 the law of "witch hunt" was canceled (though this happened with the active participation of the "Whigs" or Democrats). This case may be an example of the fact that the conservative is a party member who supported the progressive innovation.
Sometimes ascetics
In some matters, people who advocate conservative views are not only on the side of progress, but are ascetics. It is about preserving the
traditional family and religion. As noted above, conservatism stands for the preservation of values that have been tested by time. Despite the massive support for the struggle against Christianity, shots in which a naked, stupid, ugly feminist cuts down and brings down the cross, as a rule, cause disgust. And in this particular case, the conservative is a person who will certainly be outraged by what is happening and call things by their proper names, because these are his beliefs - you can’t blow up churches and bring down crosses. Unfortunately, in our time, such an act requires concrete courage - everyone who passed by turned away and did not stop the possessed. So who are the conservatives, who, as a rule, sharply oppose such lawlessness of a militant and aggressive minority? In some cases, heroes and ascetics. And the "progressive" supporters of the modern vision of human relationships turn into obscurantists, and all their parades do not resemble holidays, but medieval
burning of heretics. As you know, society is developing in a spiral. Therefore, many theories become progressive or regressive. And at different times, the question "who are the conservatives" can be answered in different ways.
The popularity of the same root term "conservation"
The term itself, meaning safety, has found wide application in everyday life - stopping construction with a view to further more successful continuation, creating strategic reserves, technical measures to protect a large number of parts from corrosion, and what every family in the CIS is familiar with is the procurement of products on in the winter. All this is called conservation. The question "Conservative - what is it?" baffled. "What?" implies a reference to an inanimate object, and this obviously means a preservative. In this case, you can call a substance that promotes safety, such as vinegar. The term "conservation" can be defined as the termination of the issuance of certain benefits that are possible in good time, and unacceptable in distress. That is, conservation can be considered as a suspension of a stream for the purpose of saving. Preserve open deposits of natural resources. The reasons may be different. Most often, the unprofitability of development is the lack of entrances, depth, etc. Sometimes the wealth of the earth is left for the future. And in this case, to the question “Conservative - who is it?” we can answer that this is a person who cares about the good of future generations.