Conservatism According to Wiker

Conservatism According to Wiker

In society today, there seems to be an ongoing battle between the conservatives and the liberals. These two groups clash on almost every topic of governmental discussion. At the very core of each group is the desire to "right" the government and to push their fundamental beliefs into rule. In Benjamin Wiker's book Ten Books Every Conservative Must Read, he takes a look at many historically monumental and influential writings and uses them to help identify what exactly it means to be conservative. He summarizes and delves into the writings of authors such as Aristotle and Tocqueville, to Belloc and Hayek. Throughout the journey among these great works, a constant theme that is essential to conservatism comes up, and that theme is protecting the very nature and morality of humankind. Of the many philosophers he deals with, he successfully uses the works of Aristotle, Hayek, and C.S. Lewis to observe who man is at the core according to conservatives.

In the chapter covering Aristotle's Politics, Wiker uses this work to define what it means to be human and how politics are a natural realization men experience. According to Wiker, "he understood that the decisive political argument occurs between those who maintain (as he did) that political life and morality are natural and those who assert... [they] are man-made" (p. 19). The second fundamental truth according to Aristotle that applies to conservatism is that caution is necessary when dealing with politics because man is not "infinitely malleable" given that morality is in fact objective, thus limiting humans can do (p.19). Because of the limitations that human beings experience, Aristotle and conservatives are much more favorable of experience over theoretical political thought. Wiker states, "For conservatives, like Aristotle, the practice of philosophy, the seeking of wisdom, involves the study of things as they are, not as we might like them to be, and that includes the study of human beings and political life" (p. 20). Conservatives, unlike liberals, are against destroying a nation's current political structure in hopes of instituting an appealing, untested system that promises "change."

The next major part of Aristotle's work is that political life and society are part of human nature. According to Aristotle, "The starting point of society is the natural union of male and female; it is the family" (p. 23). He goes onto explaining that given that we are naturally societal, politics is simply what results when we act out and attempt to perfect our human nature. Aristotle favors cities to villages or towns because it is big enough to nurture the full capabilities of man, yet small enough for the people to feel connected. Aristotle claims, "It is local affection that binds men together naturally; it is knowing our neighbors (and their character) that makes self-government possible" (p. 23). Here, Wiker states, is where conservatives get the conservative idea that favors the local over the national because it doubts centralism and bureaucracy.

Aristotle is quite in tune with the fact that man is not perfect. Wiker states it this way, "Aristotle takes the quite sensible position that the majority can be as selfish, foolish and tyrannical as any tyrant or oligarch. Therefore, he calls democracy a perversion." (p. 27). Wiker notes that the developers of the Constitution agree with Aristotle that a democracy tends to be the tyranny of the majority. Wiker and Aristotle agree that there is a certain morality that must be protected and sought after for governments to be successful. According to Wiker, "Conservatives believe in original sin--or the simple reality of human wickedness--and understand that this limits what good politics can achieve" (p.29).

Next in Aristotle's conservatism steps in the oligarch and democrat. They are two distinct groups who see justice in two very different lights. For the oligarchs, they "grab onto one aspect of justice, inequality: those who work harder should receive a greater reward,...those who have more money and who therefore provide more support for the regime should have more power and prestige" (p. 29). On the other hand, democrats look at the equality of humans to from their very nature and decide that everyone should be treated the exact same. In this argument, Aristotle simply pulls for the middle class who values hard work and reaping what you sow, but they also believe in political equality and grant no special benefits to the rich (p. 30). He does on speaking of how liberals pervert the meaning of majority rule to mean whatever the majority wants, that is what should take place. Aristotle explains, "The result is that 'everyone lives as he wants and toward whatever end he happens to crave'" (p. 32). The fact that everyone decides what they want and has to deal with everyone else doing the same, in effect prevents liberty from taking place and is actually like tyranny. Wiker declares:

The reality of wickedness, or sin, makes the creation of perfect political regimes humanly impossible, and it ensures that any imprudent attempts to create political perfection, or utopia, will end in disaster. Conservatives believe in original sin - or the simple reality of human wickedness - and understand that this limits what good politics can achieve (p. 29).

Liberals who try to relativize morality put government in danger because it ignores the sin nature of man and entrusts far too much power and ability to the individual.

Later on in Wiker's book, he relies on Friedrich August von Hayek's The Road to Serfdom to explain the importance of individual