>>" Favoring traditional views and values; tending to oppose change."
>>so conservative would always support the status quo and that would apply in the past so every improvement we have made in our lives would have been opposed by conservatives. Right or wrong ?
>
>Wrong. In order to understand "traditional views and values" one must first be educated as to what they are. "Tending to oppose" means skepticism and a desire to study and challenge before embracing or rejecting change. "Tending to oppose change" != "always support the status quo". Liberals see change itself as progress (ie progressive).

I tend to disagree with the above definition to be general, as it describes only the "good conservatism":
if you work from the latin original
liberare (to set free as to circumvent liberate) and
conservare (to preserve or retain)
education via "insightful study" does not enter neccessarily.
You can retain via purely automatic learned "stuff" re cargo cult
- although that is pointing at the bad tail of conservative education distribution ;-)

Similar distributions exist in "welcoming change" ;-)

regards

thomas