Conservatism

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I have become compelled lately by conservatism. Not conservative politics as such. Not conservative religion as such. But conservative culture, social conservatism.

Right now I am meeting a bunch of people online who are conservative (I use a handle which tells that I am conservative and it attracts these people). For example there's a girl I made contact with last night. We chatted for hours and she told me a lot about her life as a conservative girl, and her life in a conservative culture.

I don't know if I was brought up in a conservative culture. I'm just starting to learn this culture. I'd like to explore what advantages a conservative life can have for Aspies. For example the people I meet online are not in the habit of partying. That's down to their conservatism and traditions rather than anything to do with social interaction; they will go out and enjoy themselves in ways that are less brash like restaurants, cafes, movies... so without the partying culture you might not have as much interaction issues, communication issues, unpredictability, sensory issues etc.

I am also attracted to how conservatives are traditional and have clearer, more predictable social rules; how they are not opposed to change for change's sake but will change slowly; how they value and respect traditional institutions. For example with the girl I talked to last night, her clear respect for manners and social rules made it easy for me to talk to her. At least these are meant to be fundamentals of conservative culture, as I say I'm from Scotland and only just starting to learn.

In these days with increasing recognition of the inherent rights of minorites and women, social conservatism represents going back in time. We need to progress as a nation.

I'd probably be a conservative in general (maybe a bit delusional, too).

I don't see any point in respecting a tradition just for the sake of it, especially if it's bad/no longer necessary/pointless etc

if all the people who ever lived were conservatists we would never have had any progress.

I don't understand why something should be respected or kept up *just* because it has been that way for generations. where's the value in repeating the same rules, the same institutions and social standards? it's just repetitive, it's not in any way better than a change just because it's been done for years.

I consider myself socially and culturally conservative. Alot of traditional values just happen to work for me by default, like the factors you pointed out, but principle does come into it aswell.

it just sounds like she's a nice person. i doubt the urge to party or have a nice meal in a restaurant breaks evenly along liberal/conservative lines.

I enjoyed living it conservative once, but I bought one too many pair of beige slacks, if you know what I mean.

I am anything but conservative.

I don't drink but in Dublin that makes me a radical, not a conservative.

Actually, there is NOTHING about conservative culture that is misogynistic. In fact, such behavior would be AGAINST conservatism. And you shouldn't respect ANYTHING just for the sake of it. To have a good culture that can get along, etc... is another story. What is wrong with manners, courteousness, etc?

I equate conservatism with fear. One can be respectful to traditions without being a slave to them, or use them as a divisive method to seperate people based on belief systems.

I can see the benefit of belonging to a group with stable values and ways of operating. I guess for me it depends on what those values and ways are.

Maybe this is a question of social classes, tax brackets, lifestyles, number of cars in the garage, yatchting club memberships, etc.

There are LOT of very LIBERAL people that have LOTS of money, cars, yachts, and memberships! Such denial is created by them, and THAT, NocturnalQuilter, is who you should really be against!! !!

BTW for the record, I DON'T have a lot of money. My estimate is I need 70 times my savings, BEFORE the crash, just to retire(I have only 20 years to get it to that point)! My tax bracket is PLENTY high, though I OBVIOUSLY need every penny I get! As for lifestyle? I really don't have one! Yachts????? NOPE, I DON'T have one! As for cars? OK, I have TWO. One is 8 years old, and one is 16 years old(and currently not running), but I don't really get to drive them. BTW they EACH cost about $13000 when I got them. So the average age of my cars? (16,9,8=11,9) The average cost? (12900,15400,13000=13767,13000), as for memberships? OK, YOU GOT ME! Outside of a few savings memberships, like "barnes and noble", I DO have a membership to Ballys(health club). A lot of good it does me! Like the cars, I am not there!

Now we COULD have a competition, where you could give me names of conservatives(that may not even be socially conservative), and I could give YOU names of ones that are liberal in every way. Maybe we can dispense with that.

BTW I listed 3 numbers for the cars because I have had 3 cars in my life. The 2 values were average and median.

OKay, maybe social conservatism isn't about money or privilege. Maybe it's a mindset, a belief system, a life philosophy. How to define "social conservatism" anyhow?

Well said.
It's a sad thing that the age of chivalry apears to be dead.

There seems to be alot of misunderstanding here about what is and isn't a socially conservative value system.
I probobly fall into the upper-working class bracket by background, so I'm certainly not 'privileged', even though I did go to a private school for most of my time in school. I think we need to separate ecomonical conservative values from social ones here, but then again certain political labels can mean one thing in one country and something different in another. If anything, I personally, swing a bit more to the left economically. My conservatism supports the traditional family and the values assosiated with, the preservation of a nation's domestic culture and way of life.