In some previous posts, I showed that the four main “beliefs” touted by “conservatives” all boil down to a desire for power.
Whether they talk about “small government,” or “low taxes,” or “strong military,” or “traditional values,” the bottom line for “conservatives” is their deep-seated need for power.
But in my last post on how “conservatives” have been abetting Vladimir Putin, I ended with a promise to discuss what underlies the “conservative” desire for power.
It is important to get to the bottom of this because the American right is always throwing up seemingly new complaints, grievances, hatreds, and wild distractions. It is difficult to get a bead on the core of “conservatism” with the constant tidal waves that “conservatives” churn up in their wake.
Now having traced the four main “conservative beliefs” to their roots in the craving for power, it is time to go even deeper into the psychological etiology of this aberrant attitude toward government and politics—to go the taproot, as it were, of “conservatism.”
So here it is. The ultimate cause of “conservatism” is fear.
You have no doubt heard before that “conservatives” are more fearful than liberals. There have even been studies that have tried to measure the difference. But those studies have proven inconclusive. Older studies tend to find a significant difference between the two political stances, while more recent studies paint a more confused picture of fear responses in the two groups. This 2008 study finds a correlation between “conservatism” and fear, whereas this report discusses a current study that concludes that the two groups are just afraid of different things.
I don’t think this argument is relevant to the important issue. Of course everyone has fears. Given our different histories, it would be surprising if different people did not have different fears.
But what is important is how we react to our fears. If we let our fears trigger our lizard brains and indulge in anger, hatred, and violence, we lose control of ourselves. We become less than human, less than the rational beings we can and should be.
On this score, liberals are very different from “conservatives.” Liberals are much more able to act as though they were fearless because they have much more practice controlling their fears. They tend to oppose their fears with hope—the anticipation that the future will not contain the fear that they currently have.
There is research that proves this—to my satisfaction anyway. A few years ago at Yale, researchers actually managed to turn “conservatives” into liberals. In a study published in 2017 (this is the actual study and this is a popular account of it), Yale researchers were able to get Republicans and "conservative” respondents to change their longstanding attitudes so that they responded to political questions just like liberals!
And it couldn’t have been easier to achieve. All the researchers had to do was ask “conservatives” to imagine that they had a superpower that would make them impervious to physical harm. Some were told to imagine that they could fly and thus escape any sort of physical attack. Others were told to imagine that they were invulnerable to all weapons.
Once the suggestion was implanted in their minds that they couldn’t be harmed, they began responding like liberals. On specific issues, they moved significantly toward liberal positions. And on the matter of social change in general, it was impossible to tell them apart from Democrats.
So it’s the fear of being harmed that makes “conservatives” “conservative.” That’s proof enough for me that “conservatives” are more fearful than liberals.
But what does this study say about liberals? That they act as though they are much less fearful than “conservatives.” Indeed, in comparison with “conservatives,” liberals appear to be quite fearless.
It is liberals’ lack of fear about being harmed or suffering loss that makes them unafraid to spread the blessings of prosperity to all. It is the same lack of fear that makes liberals want to expand the franchise, do away with fossil fuels, raise taxes when necessary, expand civil rights to protect minorities, and keep changing society in the general direction of justice.
So the difference between "conservatives" and liberals boils down to fear versus hope. “Conservatives” act as though the world is trying to hurt them. Their fear is stronger than their hope for a decent world. Liberals, on the other hand, know that some people are trying to hurt them, but they behave as if those people will not harm them. Their hope for a decent world is stronger than their fear.
Now some of you may be asking how we get from the fear that motivates “conservative” ideology to the lust for power that underlies the BS slogans used by “conservatives.”
Just think about it. If you’re not afraid, why do you need power? Indeed, if you're not afraid, you are the freest person in the universe. Nothing can hinder you and you don't need to overcome anything or anyone. If you happen to have power, you can use it well for the benefit of all. If you don’t, well, that’s fine too.
So the sage, who has died to himself, who has conquered the ultimate fear—the fear of death—is indomitable without even trying to be. For this reason, Mohammed is said to have urged his followers, “Die before ye die!”
But the lust for power is something else. If you really need power, if you really need to keep reassuring yourself that you can beat back others—then you clearly fear them. And you strive for power to keep your fears at bay. You want to eliminate those who are different from you. You want huge arsenals of weapons to harm those who you believe want to harm you.
That is why “conservatives” believe as they believe and act as they act. They are deeply afraid of harm and loss. This causes them to seek power to ward off their fears. And the desire for power in turn causes them to behave antisocially, in the mistaken belief that everyone will take advantage of them if they don’t take advantage first.
So that brings us to the ultimate practical question that will decide the politics of the future: How can we help “conservatives” feel like they have superpowers so that they will stop standing in the way of progress?
Any ideas?
My hopes for our future are essentially boundless as we enlist more and more capable technologies, yielding unimaginable liberty and prosparity for each and every person on earth. However this is a frightening prospect for conservatives because: it started with enlightenment dismantling traditions, then overt iconoclasism, creative destruction, stranded assets .... Now it's looking like material progress is self sustaining -- has reached escape velocity -- that the natural order is undergoing a complete metamorphosis. And what does metamorphosis consist of? The complete repurposing of everything into something new. Pure heritage and traditions becoming, almost, toxic impediments. There will be no refuge from constant change in our future.
This is off-topic for this particular column, but I don’t see any way of bringing it to Scott McMurrey’s attention other than posting it here as a comment to his most recent column.
Below is a post I just made to my Facebook page, with a link to Scott’s book “Asshole Nation” and this Substack blog:
“I spend an inordinate amount of time and mental energy reading about political issues over which I have zero ability to effect meaningful change.
And so, the only psychological relief available to me is to find writings that express my own feelings.
This is something I do for quite a bit of time on a daily basis. I’m sure it fits the description of compulsive behavior.
Yesterday, Amazon proffered a book to me as a freebie, by an author I had never heard of. His name is Scott McMurrey, and the book, published in 2017, is called “Asshole Nation”.
It is interesting that Amazon proffered this book to me as a freebie. There is an algorithm implanted somewhere in those vast humming server farms that figured out this book would resonate in my brain like the Tacoma Narrows Bridge when it shook to pieces in the wind in 1940.
It’s only 62 pages, and can be read in a very brief sitting.
But every single word is like political heroin: it goes straight into the limbic system of the brain and floods it with pleasure.
Today I will read his follow up book published in 2020, “Scum Nation”.
After which, I suppose I should start looking for some sort of political rehab facility.
Here is a link to his Substack newsletter. I haven’t read it yet but I suspect I’m going to like it a lot:”