Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM MAY 4 - MAY 10, 2022 UCW 5 OPINION I'm a conservative without a con- version story. Plenty of others have such a tale — they read a certain book, had a certain teacher or some- how became disenchanted with their previous, left-leaning views. If the conversion happened as adults, after first being politically active as a progressive, socialist or communist, they were called neoconservatives. One of the most prominent, Irving Kristol, famously defined a neoconservative as "a liberal who has been mugged by reality" and a neoliberal as "a liberal who got mugged by reality but has not pressed charges." I only got mugged once, while working as a magazine reporter in Washington, and I was already a conservative. It was an attempted mugging, actually, because I hap- pened to be carrying a synthesizer in a heavy case, it proved to be a handy weapon to swing, and the would-be mugger was stoned out of his mind. But Kristol wasn't really talking about crime as a political issue, of course, although the rise of crimi- nality and social disorder during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s was a factor that propelled some Americans into the modern conservative move- ment. What bound the disparate elements of that movement to- gether was the existence of critically important and inescapable reali- ties — such as what the free-market economist omas Sowell later de- scribed as the "constrained vision" of human nature, as distinguishable from the "unconstrained vision" of would-be social engineers. Both here in North Carolina and around the country, the modern conservative movement is an al- liance of what used to be called traditionalism and what used to be called liberalism. Traditionalists believed there are fundamental truths and virtues, either revealed by God or confirmed by millennia of human history, that ought to guide human action. Classical liberals didn't necessar- ily disagree with that premise, actu- ally. But they elevated the principle of freedom to the top of the list — the right of individuals to make decisions for themselves above the power of the state to take their prop- erty and control their lives. Traditionalists valued freedom, as well, but observed that individu- als aren't born as human atoms who later, voluntarily, form human molecules. We are born into families and communities, and thus into a thick and complex web of social ob- ligations. Many traditionalists, then, defined freedom in communitarian terms, as "ordered liberty." Classical liberals emphasized the right of the individual to make decisions, even if the results dismayed their neighbors or injured themselves. When cultural critics, libertarians and anti-communists forged the modern conservative movement in America during the 20th century, they were reacting to the threaten- ing rise of populism, progressivism and socialism. It was a case of longtime rivals, traditionalists and classical liberals, forming first an alliance of mutual need and then, through fits and starts, forging a more systematic integration of their ideas. e result wasn't a catechism. It was and remains messy and incom- plete. ere are areas of disagree- ment and differences in emphasis. But the various strands of modern conservatism have enough in com- mon to work together — and what they have in common, for the most part, is a belief that governmental power should be minimized so that freedom can be maximized. Why? Because it is in the nature of humans to thrive, in the long run, when they are free to make their own decisions, rather than being compelled to comply with some central plan. e empirical evidence for this proposition is massive and constantly growing. For example, a peer-reviewed study by North Dakota State Uni- versity economist Jeremy Jackson employed the Frasier Institute's Eco- nomic Freedom of North America Index and a set of survey data on life satisfaction. All other things being equal, states with lower taxes, smaller budgets, and fewer regula- tions had a higher share of happy residents than did those with expan- sive, expensive governments. My conservative colleagues and I here in North Carolina fight for freedom not as an abstraction but as a practical tool for promoting op- portunity, progress, happiness and virtue. And we welcome converts to the cause. Freedom is a tool for progress by JOHN HOOD JOHN HOOD, Board Member, John Locke Foundation. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. 910-484-6200 Vote Diane Wheatley Actions Speak Louder Than Words! EXPERIENCE COUNTS PAID FOR BY THE COMMITTEE TO ELECT DIANE WHEATLEY *Per CPAC annual ranking published in February 2022 in Orlando, FL (see http://ratings.conservative.org) Cumberland County Board of Commissioners Cumberland County Board of Education- Past Chair Cumberland County Joint Planning Board Chair Cumberland County Mental Health Board Cape Fear Valley Hospital Board of Directors Red Cross Board of Directors Kidsville News Literacy Foundation Past Chair of the Karen Chandler Trust Recipient of The Order of the Longleaf Pine Diane Wheatley NC HOUSE DISTRICT 43 A leader who cares about Cumberland County and has the resume and record to prove it! NC Values 2022 "Champion Of The Family" Diane received an A+ Rating for her beliefs www.DianeWheatleyNC.com The #1 Conservative Legislator in Cumberland County!*