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By Paul M Weyrich
February 13, 2006
The next conservatism, like conservatism
today, should regard environmentalism warily. Environmentalism
is on the verge of becoming an ideology, if it has not done
so already. That means environmentalists twist facts to fit
their preconceived notions. All ideologies do that, which
is why conservatives don't like ideologies.
But conservation is another matter. The
words "conservative" and "conservation"
come from the same root, conserve. As conservatives, we believe
in conserving traditions, morals, and culture, but also clean
air and water, farms and countryside, energy (much of which
must be imported), and the soil itself, on which we all depend
for our food.
Conservatives don't like waste. Reckless,
frivolous, unnecessary consumption is not a conservative virtue.
Like many conservatives, I grew up in a household where nothing
was wasted. We used everything until it was used up, or until
we passed it on to other people poorer than ourselves. We
seldom bought things we did not need. That is a good way to
live, regardless of how much money we have. A society's real
strength comes from production, saving and investment, not
consumption. Earlier generations of Americans understood this
and lived accordingly.
In my opinion, conservation needs to be
part of the next conservatism. This will be particularly important
as energy becomes more expensive, and as some traditional
sources of energy such as oil become relatively scarce.
But there is a larger aspect to conservation,
one that ties into a central idea of the next conservatism,
the importance of local life. Globalism, which is a dominant
idea among the Washington Establishment, preaches bigness.
We are supposed to welcome a "world economy" where
virtually all our manufactured goods come from overseas, our
energy comes from massive, often international networks, our
food from huge agribusinesses. The Globalists seldom talk
about how vulnerable this leaves us to events in other parts
of the world. Nor do they talk about the consequences for
the lives of ordinary Americans, who are left both dependent
on and in competition with other people all over the world.
In my view, the next conservatism's conservation
needs to point away from Globalism and toward a new focus
on local life. Here, some new technologies may be helpful.
In the future, it may be possible to produce energy locally,
from solar or wind power or in-home fuel cells. And even with
current technology, there is much we can do to reduce our
dependence on big systems by reviving old ways, something
conservatives favor. In much of America, we can eat food grown
locally and use local products much more than most of us now
do. Often, the quality is better, and if the price is somewhat
higher, the money is going to our neighbors rather than to
some international mega-corporation. As I have said before,
the quality of our lives is not determined by how much cheap
junk we own.
There are two conservation movements that
represent the sort of things I think the next conservatism
should support, sustainable agriculture and organic farming.
Both attempt to restore and maintain the fertility of the
soil itself, as opposed to relying on ever-greater doses of
chemicals and genetically engineered crops. The nation's soil
is perhaps our most important resource, one that we should
feel honor bound to pass on in a healthy condition to the
next generation. These two movements, in turn, tie into efforts
to promote local foods through farmers' markets and cooperatives
and to restore family farming as a viable way of life. Those
also make sense from a conservative perspective, because they
strengthen local life.
I have suggested previously in this
series that "think locally, act locally" needs to
be a principle of the next conservatism, if we want to steer
our country away from Brave New World. Conservation, in turn,
is a logical part of thinking and acting locally, because
if we do not conserve our local land, water and air we degrade
our own neighborhood. As conservatives, we should not fall
for environmentalism or any other ideology. But we should
conserve, in the way we live our own lives and relate to the
people around us. The next conservatism, like all real conservatism,
is ultimately a way of life.
Paul M. Weyrich is the Chairman and CEO of the Free Congress
Foundation.
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