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To: ClearCase_guy
What is the Right?

That is the fundamental question. Was a 1930s German Conservative the same as a 1930s or 2000 American Conservative? I would say they aren't even close to being the same animal.

Conservative in Europe in the 1930s meant conserving their historical position in society -- the old titled and landed aristocracy -- the High churches, and the industrial Moguls --- all were targets for the "Communists" who's platform was to completely gut the existing society and rebuild a new society that would have totally excluded the old order. The only thing conservative about those people was the desire to 'conserve' their own positions in society --- and possibly their lives at the hands of the "Bolsheviks".

Unlike the American Conservative of the 1930s or today, the European Conservative had no particular ideology on the size and scope of government or the concept of Natural Law that defined the limits of government authority. If anything, they were likely to favor larger government intervention in the economy and social organization since they were paternalistic in nature. Hitler gave them the best of both worlds -- a "socialist" economy that preserved their position far more securely than possible under Capitalism and a paternalist society where they were the "uber" parents.

101 posted on 03/22/2005 11:12:44 AM PST by Ditto ( No trees were killed in sending this message, but billions of electrons were inconvenienced.)
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To: Ditto

Actually, the German conservative and the Marxist both shared an intellectual root in Hegel and the Hegelian dialectic. Hegel viewed the state as the highest human aspiration.

You are quite right in that the European conservative was oriented to preservation of the status quo, not any "free market" ideology.


103 posted on 03/22/2005 11:26:32 AM PST by Sam the Sham
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