>I think this a problem with most conservatives. They don't have the energy nor courage to question traditional values and rules. As the word conservative implies they are resistant to change, because that makes people feeling insecure. OTOH, progressiveness is the only tool to get us forward. And even the conservatives of today are disgusted with the stance of the conservatives a few decades ago (see above). I'd expect the conservatives of the future will think the same of the conservatives today who refuse to questions the current status. See the paradox ??

Strange about the comparisons of today and yesterday.

As a liberal of yesterday I am upset (first emotion was disgusted) by the liberals of today. They have moved away from the idea that people are free to believe whatever they want as long as their behavior does not deprive others of their rights - like voting and being able to use public facilities, etc. Now they have become the equivalents of the Palmerites and McCarthyites of days gone by. It's awful to refuse to rent to a Jew, Black, Catholic, Communist, etc because those things have no relevance towards being a good tennent. Of course, it's OK to refuse to rent to Nazis, Skinheads, because we don't want to have anything to do with their ideals. The idea of "Hate Speech" being illegal is, to me, unfathomable and blatantly un-constitutional.

What gets me particularly upset is the rhetoric of both the liberals and conservtives. Both sides impune not only the ideas of the other, but the motivation. To listen to (well, you know who they are), liberals INTEND to march this country down the road to Stalinism and conservatives are closet admirers of Hitler and Mussolini who INTEND to march this country down the road to a theocratic oligarchy.

So what got me started on this particular rant????

"They don't have the energy nor courage to question traditional values and rules. As the word conservative implies they are resistant to change, because that makes people feeling insecure."

What utter rubbish.

I disagree with them almost completely. But I will give them the credit to think that they have examined traditional values and rules and find themselves in agreement with them. They are resistant to change because the concept of change for its own sake is not valid. The change has to be to something better.

"OTOH, progressiveness is the only tool to get us forward."
In the context of your earlier "resistant to change" statement, I take "progressiveness" to mean change.

Russia changed dramatically after WW I. As bad as Romanov rule was (my grandparents fled Russia after several-too-many Cossack pogroms) the change resulted in something even worse. Germany "progressed" after the Weimar Republic and I doubt that anybody believes this was real progress.

I find almost no merit in many conservative positions (especially the one which started this whole thread - gay marriage). I equally find no merit in denigrating them (as opposed to their views) as they denigrate liberals (as opposed to their views).

Whew. I feel better now. I've been wanting to get something like this off my chest for a long time.