It boils down to having the courage, energy and intellect to identify problems and search and implement pragmatic solutions rather than being afraid to make mistakes or face opposition from (minority) groups that are happy with the status quo because it fits in their way of living and want to force that on others.

You're assigning all positive characteristics to one side of the equation. Life's not so simple. Sometimes it takes courage, energy and intellect to *oppose* changes. How does that fit the above?

I guess my point is that it is very easy to be conservative (again not implying a political colour), because all you have to do is determine a set of values and believes and stick to it for the rest of your life and attack every problem from that angle. You'll be praised because you sticked to your principles.

You might say the same of "progressives" who start with absolute certainty about their own functional superiority and attributes of courage, energy and intellect they assign exclusively to their own viewpoint. ;-)

If you are on the progressive side, you will put all your energy and intellect into finding the best solution under the given circumstances and the information available to you in a pragmatic way.

That's not progressive, it's basic common sense surely. And sometimes the "best" solution turns out to be the dreaded status quo.

But its not all black and white. People tend to much more progressive when they are young, because they have the energy and courage and really have not so much to lose. When they grow older they get more conservative because they have build (material or immaterial) themselves already and now they tend to defend on what they've got. They generally have lost the flexibility and energy to change.

Actually latest evidence shows that men become more liberal as they father girls and less liberal as they father boys. ;-)