Where and Why ‘Conservatives’ Fall Off the Turnip Wagon

The ‘Status Quo’ can never be preserved. It is impossible. No matter how so many may wish things stay the same, and fear the unknown, change will come. Recognition of this fact is seen in the old saying:  “The only constant in Life is Change”.

You can not wish change away. You must embrace and accept it, and hope to guide it. It is a matter of simple survival. To demand or expect the status quo is in fact to regress.

Conservatives and Regressives in particular,  fail to recognize the status quo can never be sustained - ever. Change is not only required, it is an inevitable fact of life, and comes whether one wishes it or not. The best we can do is hope to direct and guide some of the change in the ways needed and desired.

Further, change is the ONLY way to achieve progress. Progress REQUIRES the status quo be changed.  That’s where Conservatives fall off the turnip wagon. You can’t stand still. You can’t go back, and you really can’t even look back. You must look, and move forward.

Change is a force of nature, and it is adapt or perish. As a natural force it is evident all around us. Rivers change course; glaciers gouge out valleys, then retreat. Floods inundate vast regions, hurricanes come and seasons progress from one to the next, all different to one degree or another from preceding versions. Animals, including humans are born, mature, grow old, then die, making room for the newer, fresher, and changed generations. The same with all life, with cities, with countries, governments, politics, religions and philosophies, and in time measured in eons, the very ground beneath our feet. Everything, as in EVERYTHING, is always in flux.

But, the inevitability of the fact doesn’t stop people from fearing change. Fear of change too seems to be a fact of life, the unwillingness to accept the unknown, and possibly, even probably, the dangerous. People and all sentient animals, are most comfortable with the status quo, the perception of the safe, the known and the familiar. The unknown is to be feared, simply because we do not know what to expect. But, our fear can not stop the inevitable change, which will come whether or not we wish it.

We can try to block change, refuse to acknowledge it and rail against it, and may even be successful in the short term, but change will not be denied in the long run. Change will come. Which is the main reason I believe most people who call themselves conservative often seem to be so dissatisfied and anxious. Conservatives simply do not have it within themselves to relax and embrace the new or unfamiliar.  They seek and cling to the familiar and known, and many seek solace and protection for their 'souls' in an imaginary afterlife. That is their comfortable security blanket which they must cling to to survive emotionally.

Not all, or even most change is good of course. Change, being a natural phenomena, is random and inevitably some of it is bad, or dangerous. So, there is a very real foundation for the fear and anxiety.   On the other hand, much change can be beneficial - and becomes what we call ‘progress’.

And progress over the long term is desirable. We simply can not afford to stand still, even if we so fervently want to do so. It is impossible.