Where did liberalism and conservatism come from?

[Joe the Liberal]

What are the roots of both? Who or what started them and why? and when?

[leftstreet]

1. Both terms mean different things in different systems

Did you mean here in America, Fuck Yeah!! ?

[Uzybone]

2. Their roots are in human nature

There have always been liberals and conservatives. They've had different names depending on the place and time.

[hendo]

3. John Locke is often credited with the creation of liberal democracy

which has both conservative and liberal aspects.

Other than that, what are you really wanting to know?

[BlooInBloo]

14. (facepalm)

[hendo]

26. if you don't have anything to add... NT

[davepc]

4. The scope of your question is huge, and a lot of it depends on the context of the words.

Conservatism as a concept is the idea of keeping things the way they are or reverting to an idealized "way they used to be"

Liberalism is a seeking advancement and change...to improve on today with a better future.


The first conservative was the hunter/gather who wanted the tribe to stay in the same hunting grounds it always hunted in. The 1st liberal was the hunter/gather who wanted to move the tribe over the river into new territory.

[anonymous171]

5. Philosophically, all American schools of political thought are "liberal"

Basically, if a political school of thought rejects the notion of monarchy/oligarchy/plutocracy/theocracy/any non-individualist structure of government and embraces personal freedom, it is Liberal.

[Chulanowa]

17. Did you mean are NOT liberal?

Because every political moment in our country has been the furtherance of a plutocracy, with occasional bread ("Reforms") and circuses (wars) to keep us proles from massacring the elite. We even have a pretty long history of dalliances with theocracy and military rule, as well.

[readmoreoften]

19. No, actual liberalism is the economic term for capitalism.

It's the "liberty" of money markets. The terms liberalism/neoliberalism elsewhere in the world mean capitalist or rightwing. What we call liberal or progressive is called "Social Democrat" in other countries.

[anonymous171]

23. Woah there. Tone down the hyperbole just a tad.

Monarchy is not liberal. Authoritarian Communism is not Liberal. Fascist thought is most definitely not liberal. Convservative ideology and Democratic ideology are both liberal. They do however, represent a schism in the within the Liberal school of thought. Conservatives want less government because they believe that society functions best when the individual is left alone. Democrats believe that the government should help and protect the individual. The amount of help/protection that should be rendered by the government to the individual is what we are always arguing about within the Democratic Party.

Both ideologies, despite their differences, recognize individual freedom, which is why they are both "Liberal." What you are pointing out has nothing to do with the role of Government. You are talking about politics, not political thought.

[Chulanowa]

25. Tone down the hyperbole? What hyperbole?

Neither American liberalism nor conservativism are "liberal", unless you do as you just did and compare them to outright despotism. Yes, we're more liberal than Nazis, Stalinism, and such. This is sort of like saying Idi Amin was less oppressive than Pinochet.

By your original definition that you used for liberalism... Neither system is liberal, because both strive for outright plutocracy, and the only concession to "liberalism" is the occasional crumb tossed out when the crowds grow restless.

In your new definition in this post, it still doesn't work. Neither American conservativism nor liberalism deals with the individual.

American conservativism does not think that society is better of the individual is left alone. American conservativism has always been at the forefront of oppressing the individual in favor of the conglomerate and organization.

American liberalism doesn't seek to aid the individual. It seeks to offer concessions to the masses to keep them passive.

Both strategies serve the same purpose - the creation of a plutocracy, or at least the exclusion of the wealthless and security of the wealthy. The only difference between the two is that the conservative system does this by force, and the liberal system does it by persuasion.

Good cop, bad cop, both are still cops.

[hendo]

31. Goldwater's conservatism supported the idea that the individual should be left alone. NT

[Chulanowa]

36. Unless those individuals happened to favor socialism or communism...

Then they could get a nuke up their asses.

[smalll]

6. Liberalism as a name for an idea emerged in the late-18th, early-19th century.

Liberals were Enlightenment people. And the word "liberal" came from the word "liberty." Ronald Reagan's philosophy was essentially that of a 19th century liberal. He was a Guizot with charm.

"Conservative" (meaning, conserving the legacy of the past) first came into general use mostly in the aftermath of the French Revolution -- the reactionary monarchists, pro-aristocratic types like De Maistre and the later Burke, who mis-read the atrocities of the French Revolution as the necessary results of Enlightenment ideas. These were men steeped in history who longed for the aristotelianoid "great chain of being" of the Middle Ages, and who salivated over titles and heraldic emblems....

Today's American "conservatives" are just the old-style "liberals." And honestly, it's good for our side that they got stuck with the C-word and we get the L-word for ourselves, even though there is very little justice in either of the contemorary defnitions as generally understood. Luck plays a key part in History, over and over again. Tough noogies to the bad guys on this one (they've had their own random gifts-of-history advantages themselves in other situtations, probably far more than they deserve.)

[Joe the Liberal]

13. "Today's American "conservatives" are just the old-style "liberals.""

That's a unique way of looking at it, I never thought about it that way.

[readmoreoften]

20. It's actually the historically correct answer.

[No.23]

7. Once upon a time there was a sheep herder.

The sheep herder had a bountiful herd of sheep, who grazed on land that originally belonged to them, but now belonged to the sheep herder.

How did this sheep herder get control of their land?

By convincing one group of sheep (he got them to see and call themselves as liberals) that the other group (he got them to see and call themselves as conservatives) was their life-long, ideological adversary.

So they spent most of their time blaming each other for not having enough control of their land and poor quality of grazing.

And very little time acting like the land was always theirs to begin with.

They had given it away to the sheep herder...

by agreeing to be divided.

What is liberalism and conservatism?

Ideological tools that the elite use to keep the controlled divided and under control.

[anonymous171]

15. So basically the developement of modern American political thought is a conspiracy?

[No.23]

18. Conflicting ideologies are a most effective tool...

in keeping the masses divided and controlled.

Us versus them and all that.

That's a big reason why professional sports is so popular.

It gives you an us to be part of, and a them to root against.

There is no need for a few to exercise overt and forced control over the many...

when you can get them to predictably lunge at each others' throats.

[hendo]

28. so now sports are a conspiracy also?

My team is soo going to beat your team in the next organized sporting event in which the two compete :-p

[No.23]

34. Actually, competitive professional sports...

is just a symptom of the "them versus us" indoctrination that starts in childhood.

Them versus us, us versus them.

Wars depend on that indoctrination.

Just look at the plentiful symptoms of that mindset around us.

They're not hard to see.

[hendo]

35. It was actually sarcasm

but whatever.

[GA_ArmyVet]

21. That was a great parable of of how I feel lately

I have begun to believe that the our two parties are just smoke and mirrors to keep the masses in check and maintain the status quo among the elite and powerful.

I sometimes feel that the Dem and Rep. parties are neither liberal or conservative but power hungry elitist who care nothing for the country and only work towards furthering their own self intersts.

Then again, its late and I am being very cynical today.

[No.23]

22. Go to sleep, soldier.

I wish more people were as cynical as you are.

It helps you to avoid succumbing to smoke and mirrors and kool-aid and party propaganda..

Nite.

“Cynicism is an unpleasant way of saying the truth.” Lillian Hellman

[Ghost in the Machine]

8. Liberalism comes from the heart and soul...

caring about others, caring about the planet, caring about the future, etc.

Conservatism comes from a lack of brains and compassion....

[hendo]

29. Ah, and this is why many of us can't get along with many conservatives

Get over the prejudices.

[Naturyl]

9. The moment of creation.

Complementary opposition of polar forces or elements is the nature of existence.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

10. From nature. The bullies are conservative - they are the psychos....

... they're the mentally imbalanced, the thieves, the blamers, the rigid.

The rest (women who are not doormats, intelligent people, people of many races and cultures, the kind, the poor, the disabled, etc.), are libs.

[Old and In the Way]

11. Liberal is derived from the latin word for free man.

Conservative is derived from the Latin word for whack job. :-)

Seriously, I find these labels totally empty of any practical meaning in today's political arena. For example, a pro-life wants government to regulate the uterus of a woman. I hardly think that's a conservative position. OTOH, I don't think it's a liberal/progressive position either. We need better labels that define our politics. I'm thinking "pragmatic socialist vs. ideological anti-socialist" is a more descriptive contrast between the two competing political parties.

[BuyingThyme]

12. I started liberalism.

Conservatism has always been there.

[BlooInBloo]

16. As you see them today in America, the biggest recent shaper of the ideologies was...

60s, which most prominently includes the Civil Rights Act, women's rights, and the Vietnam War.


EDIT: Added "in America" and "most prominently".

[hendo]

27. Not quite, but whatever..

There are quite a few events that are far more important in modern politics than the Civil Rights ACter, the women's rights movement, and the Vietnam War.

Although, the Vietnam War does remain increasingly important for the hippy sub-culture, which John Stewart rightly pointed out is ruining our party.

[greenkal]

24. Liberalism came from intelligence!

It's because we simply know how to do things better.

Conservatism came from racism.

[hendo]

33. umm no

thanks for playing though.

[demmiblue]

30. I think the main ideals of liberalism as we see it in this country came from The Enlightenment

[Fleshdancer]

32. according to etymonline.com:

Liberal:

c.1375, from O.Fr. liberal "befitting free men, noble, generous," from L. liberalis "noble, generous," lit. "pertaining to a free man," from liber "free," from PIE base *leudheros (cf. Gk. eleutheros "free"), probably originally "belonging to the people" (though the precise semantic development is obscure), from *leudho- "people" (cf. O.C.S. ljudu, Lith. liaudis, O.E. leod, Ger. Leute "nation, people"). Earliest reference in Eng. is to the liberal arts (L. artes liberales; see art (n.)), the seven attainments directed to intellectual enlargement, not immediate practical purpose, and thus deemed worthy of a free man (the word in this sense was opposed to servile or mechanical). Sense of "free in bestowing" is from 1387. With a meaning "free from restraint in speech or action" (1490) liberal was used 16c.-17c. as a term of reproach. It revived in a positive sense in the Enlightenment, with a meaning "free from prejudice, tolerant," which emerged 1776-88. Purely in ref. to political opinion, "tending in favor of freedom and democracy" it dates from c.1801, from Fr. libéral, originally applied in Eng. by its opponents (often in Fr. form and with suggestions of foreign lawlessness) to the party favorable to individual political freedoms. But also (especially in U.S. politics) tending to mean "favorable to government action to effect social change," which seems at times to draw more from the religious sense of "free from prejudice in favor of traditional opinions and established institutions" (and thus open to new ideas and plans of reform), which dates from 1823.

Conservative:

as a modern political tradition, conservatism traces to Edmund Burke's opposition to the Fr. Revolution (1790), but the word conservative is not found in his writing. It was coined by his Fr. disciples, (e.g. Chateaubriand, who titled his journal defending clerical and political restoration "Le Conservateur"). Conservative as the name of a British political faction it first appeared in an 1830 issue of the "Quarterly Review," in an unsigned article sometimes attributed to John Wilson Croker. It replaced Tory (q.v.) by 1843, reflecting both a change from the pejorative name (in use for 150 years) and repudiation of some reactionary policies. Extended to similar spirits in other parties from 1845.

"Strictly speaking, conservatism is not a political system, but rather a way of looking at the civil order. The conservative of Peru ... will differ greatly from those of Australia, for though they may share a preference for things established, the institutions and customs which they desire to preserve are not identical."

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php