Why Socialists Don't Understand What Makes Conservatives Tick

Over the past few years my sympathies for Kenysian economics, the welfare state and big government paternalism have evaporated like the mist on Pog Lake in the morning sun. Instead of viewing the Christian position as poised midway between a liberal kind of politics (on the environment and economics) and a conservative kind of politics (on the family, civil society and the sanctity of life), I have become increasingly sympathetic to the conservative position across the board.

I still view consumer capitalism in the form it has assumed in the past two centuries as a degenerate philosophy over-influenced by Enlightenment rationalism and a materialistic worldview. It tends to reduce all things to commodities - even people - and is destructive of the family and the influence of the Church. But not everything the left labels "capitalism" is bad. Much of what the left labels as "capitalist" actually pre-dates the Enlightenment by centuries and is the good fruit of Christendom - like the concept of private property, limited government, the division of powers, the widespread distribution of property, free enterprise, etc.

In order to make this less abstract, try to follow me on this thought experiment. My father ran a furniture refinishing and upholstery business for over 30 years. It was a small enterprise started on a shoestring and a bank loan, but it provided a living for my family and sent me to college. (I was the first person in my family to attend college.) It also provided jobs for 6-8 other people, who were well paid according to what they would have made at comparable jobs elsewhere (i.e. they received a "living wage"). Customers were provided with a good service; my father was known around town for doing the best quality work and those who wanted high quality were happy to pay more if he would do their work.

Now, according to socialism, my father was an immoral capitalist who extracted profit from the labour of the craftsmen and labourers who worked for him. They give no credit to him for the fact that he took the risks, put a mortgage on his home to keep the business going and had the initiative, energy and business skills to start and run a business and meet payroll every week. For all that, he deserved nothing more than a salary determined by the state; that is socialism. I think it is obvious why I find socialism to be a myth born of envy, fueled by greed, and steeped in irrationality. (And those are just its best points!)

Now, consider the multi-national, chemical company that located its chemical factory in Bophal, India and then had a terrible accident that killed and maimed many people. Did it locate there because health and safety regulations were less stringent and so endanger the lives of the locals for the sake of excess profit? I don't know, but let's say they did. Whether they did in this case or not, you would have to be naive to think similar things don't happen in sweatshops across the third world every day of the week. Now, this is dispicable; there is no way to sugar coat this evil exploitation of men, women and children just for the sake of extra profit. This is what Paul was talking about when he wrote to Timothy that the love of money is the root of all evil.

But here is why socialists look stupid to conservatives; two reasons. First, socialists lump all business together as if capitalism were one big system and there is no difference between my father's business and the chemical factory. Yes, I know many socialists would reply by saying that they only want to nationalize the large corporations and leave small businesses alone. Well, you can't blame conservatives for being a bit suspicious about that. We all know what Marxist-Leninist ideology did to the peasant farmers in the Ukraine in 1933. So maybe, if the socialists got power they would leave small business alone; then again maybe not. But in order to satisfy the endless appetite of the state for taxes to fund the entitlement programs and re-distribution of wealth, can anyone seriously believe that small business would not be taxed out of existence? (Or if the government was really crafty, within an inch of their lives?) The Canadian government seems to be in the process of perfecting this art and the socialists have never even obtained power at the national level yet.

Second, a lot of academics in particular and social elites in general think conservatives are stupid. Yet the reality is that a lot of conservatives who abhor the chemical factory's actions have thought the issue through and concluded that the solution to this problem is for third world governments, with the cooperation and support of first world governments, to adopt health and safety standards comparable to those of the first world. This is the proper role of government. Yes, I know that is hard, but it is possible at least in the long run. The socialist solution is to destroy capitalism because of its flaws; but that is like tearing down the house because there is mold in one of the walls. We have a mold problem, but we aren't going to tear the house down; we are going to renovate the bathroom. It makes more sense to strip down to the frame and eliminate the mold; its cheaper (and takes less resources thus helping the environment!).

A lot of socialists seem to imagine that flaws invalidate the capitalist system but that flaws in the socialist system don't invalidate the socialist system. Why? Because socialism is rational and capitalism is pure evil, which means that my father's business was "pure evil." You have to be very highly educated (i.e. indoctrinated) in order to believe this level of nonsense.

Socialists criticize the violence inherent in the capitalist system; but maybe the truth is that violence is inherent in a fallen human race. Maybe it isn't capitalism that is responsible for all the evils of the world; maybe it's people. And it will still be people running the socialist state.

Frankly, I don't think socialists understand conservatives or their way of thinking. I don't think they give conservatives credit for thinking through the issues. They cannot for the life of them understand why the working class supports the "party of big business" and they cannot understand why conservatives can't see that socialism is in their best interests.

I think it all comes down to worldview. Conservatives understand one thing that liberals and socialists do not; that life is tragic. Of course, Christian conservatives know that ultimately, if you count eternity, it is a comedy. But in this age, between the first and second comings of Christ, utopia is not possible, hard choices must be made and human nature is not perfectible. Their obsession with class warfare and utopian dreams renders socialists unable to understand conservatives and what makes them tick. It is a different philosophy of history and a different philosophy of human nature. It is a lot deeper than selfish interests and economic motivations.