Conservatives are liberal, and liberals are conservative--on the environment.

• Author: Colarelli, Stephen M.
• Position: Controversy

Conservatives and liberals differ on a host of issues: abortion, the death penalty, welfare, school choice, and gun control, among others. Yet beneath these particular differences are two fundamental differences: beliefs about tradition and human nature. Most of conservatives' and liberals' positions stem from their differences on these basic beliefs--except for their positions on the environment. The environment presents a paradox. When it comes to the environment, conservatives are liberals, and liberals are conservatives. *

Conservatives seek to preserve the past; they proceed cautiously and slowly with change; they are suspicious of social engineering and social reformers. They believe that society evolved organically and is therefore a seamless web of interconnected parts. A change in one part of the social fabric affects other parts of society--parts that initially may appear unrelated to the change. Conservatives also believe that society is unfathomably complex. Isaiah Berlin writes that classical conservatives, such as Burke and Chateaubriand, spoke of the unique power and value of the infinitely complex and unanalyzable network--as in Burke's myriad strands of social and spiritual relationships by which the successive generations of mankind were shaped from birth and to which they owed most of what they possessed and were.

Because society is organic and complex, people should have a deep respect for tradition, according to conservatives. The structures that exist in society (the family, government, religion) do so because they emerged and proved successful over hundreds of years of social evolution. Therefore, social change and social reform should be viewed with suspicion. Humankind does not understand the complexity and interconnectedness of society well enough to predict the outcome of social reforms. In fact, social reforms may make things worse because they often result in unanticipated consequences. Therefore, if social change must be undertaken, it must be undertaken cautiously, slowly, and incrementally.

Liberals look askance at tradition. They view it as oppressive, as often hindering the advancement and reducing the well-being of those who have not benefited from traditional social structures. They take a positive view of social engineering and social reforms. Beginning with the philosophers of the French Enlightenment, liberals believed--and continue to believe--that humankind should not be shackled by tradition and ignorance, and society should be molded into something better than what exists. They believe that science and rational analysis will permit us to understand how society...