The Required Historical Balance between Progressivism and Conservatism

The western society seems to be on are crossroad. One that has not been seen for many decades. Some will even say that we are in a potential turning point, that will change all our values and shake our culture. The clearest sign of this important moment in history can be reflected by the concerning social divide seen all over the west. It varies in its degree in different country but follow the same trajectory. One of self-destruction. If we are to understand how to overcome this divide and rebuilt a society that is walking toward a better future, I believe we need to start by understanding what is standing behind the two opposite camp that can be identified so clearly in our current society and the imbalance threatening our society.

A period of unrest is not new or special. It is part of human history regardless of time, location or social system. It reflects a reality in which the system does not benefit a big part of the population normally created due to a disconnect between the ruling party and its people. All revolutions have sprung from such a tipping point, built slowly and exploding all at once. The reason for the revolution or the violence normally has little to do with the actual problems individual people have, but with a wide enough catalyst that will group all the unhappy people under a specific banner. While historically humanity live under hierarchical social structure with a clear elite controlling power and resources, our current structure is different. It is easy to understand how a king/ tyrant/ or elite group will go too far in the process of maintaining their own power and wealth, building resentment over time in the local population. On the other hand, the current democratic system we developed is more complex. As it promised to fight exactly this outcome.

As I explained in detail in my first book “Back to Ourselves”, democracy as we know it today is a recent phenomenon, dating less than 250 years. The US is the most radical and revolutionary when it comes to its democratic structure. Leading the way and establishing the structure many people in the west take today for granted. Europe took its time to establish the democratic system. Most of the western people are well aware of the French and their revolution, but do not know that many countries in western Europe established their democratic structure well into the 1900’s, while the eastern countries did not reach it until the fall of the USSR – less than 50 years ago. Democracy as we know it today has been built on important values that revolutionized society as a whole. Free speech, equality in front of the law and the authority of an elected changing representatives are all part of the new way western culture built itself toward freedom.

The fact that democracy worked is not obvious in any stretch of the imagination. On many levels, the system can be seen as an experiment, created by progressives that believed in the capacity of society to overcome their differences for the purpose of creating a better future for all its participants. Free market, self-autonomy, equality of opportunity and meritocracies were the foundation structure that allow the west to prosper and give to the world as standard of living never dreamed of few generations ago. As an experimental system, it has many flows. From which the biggest one is how fast can it fall back to tyranny (or at least autocracy). After all, we never had historical evidence that democracy should work. It was built on a vision and the belief that humanity can do it. for a deeper conversation on the historical variation of democracy and the danger of our current system read my post - “Should we save Democracy”).

I doubt many western people can argue with the fact the democracy as a whole is the best way to govern ourselves. While many people do take the system for granted, I have a deep believe the most if not all hold a deep understanding that tyranny, communism or a single ruler system is not superior to democracy. Regardless, looking at our current western society can give one the impression that many people forgot what the idea of democracy fights again and for. It seems a general socialist movement is becoming the dream of many people (especially the young adult), that the fear of tyranny has been lost and replaced by the wish for comfortability and that society as a whole forgot what unite us.

History can be seen as a fight between our need to conserve our security and our wish the evolve and progress. While in any other social system, the control of this process is held by a small amount of people, dictating its general direction, democracy is different. It assumes that humanity can find a balance. One that will support and cherish the culture that brought us to this great reality we are living in, while encouraging progress. It requires flexibility, self-regulation, the capacity to accept the needs of others and the willingness the believe in the good existing in all people. It is unique in the fact that it allows diversity of opinion and protect it for the greater good. Creating a continuous balance between security and exploration.  

After a long thought process, I came to realize that the current divide seen in western democratic societies can be categorize as development of two historically complementing camp, that forgot over time the need each have for the other and dig themselves into extremity. The two camps can be defined as the conservatives and the progressives. For the purpose of this writing, we will define conservatives as people that hold the belief that our culture needs to be preserved at all costs, including but not limited to our history, religion, institution, political and economic structure. The progressives from the other side can be categories as people that hold the belief it is time for a change. Most of the progressives believe that our culture, institution, history and economic structure are old, in urgent need of reinvention for the benefit of aligning with the new open, global, inclusive society we came to be.

The clear and old philosophical difference between what we used to called left and right (democratic and republican) no longer exit and has even flipped. A change that does not help to the general crisis we are currently experiencing. The left parties for decades use to represent the working people, promoting family values, supported peace, promoted liberty and freedom of speech. The right from the other side was traditionally supportive of war for the benefit of control and superiority, economic intervention, support of big cooperation and economic globalism. As of recent, it seems a shift has occurred that can be seen most clearly in the USA. The left became a supporter or war (pushing budgets to Ukraine and Israel), the support for LGBTQ has overshadowed the promotion of nuclear family, a general support of big cooperation and a general collaboration has been clear since COVID, the working people when down in the priority list for the benefit of supporting immigrant and minorities and a strong support for censorship has appeared in the democratic party. From the other side, it is the right that recently talk about controlling deficits for the benefit of the working people, the need to stop promoting wars, express resistance the big corporations take over, preaches family values and liberties.

Like many other people that considered themselves left leaning a decade ago, I came to realize that I’m currently considered a right-wing supporter. This shift can be attributed in some part to my personal development following COVID but mainly due to the political shift mentioned above. Many famous people have experienced the same. Examples are – Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Brett Weinstein. Historically it is not the first time the poles are changing in such a manner. The National Socialism and the fascist movement both started as left wing movement and shift in a crucial moment in history to the right under the progressive banner. The best way to understand this phenomenon is to look at the political scene not in terms of left and right, democrats and republican but in terms of Conservatives and progressives. Let me explain you why.

 The power struggle and its outcome between progressives and conservatives is as old as humans. It is the foundation of most of our myth and appeared until recently in all the best movie. It is the struggle between the need to preserve and maintain security in the price of rigidity and possibly structural social limitation vs the need to progress, regenerate and explore in the price of chaos, new and dangerous. Most of our myth are built this way, represented in two different story lines- the first is the story of a rigid and old king (sometime a tyrant) that uphold order and demand discipline that do not benefit any longer the reality. The son or protagonist is normally going in a journey that involves exploration and bravery leads him or her to a direct confrontation with the authoritarian system (normally with the help of an old mage, a magical creature, a snake or a guiding soul). By killing the system and its leader the protagonist creates a new system that has been regenerate and rebuilt based on the progress needed, creating a better environment for all. In this case the story is depicting the need of the progressive side to fight back in case the conservative side went too far and became tyrannical and not beneficial for the people.

The second story normally depict a protagonist that live in a chaotic reality. One in which chaos reign due to a general disaster, prolonged war, invasion, a takeover of an extreme socialist movement or machine that had overturn reality. In this story line, it is the protagonist capacity to follow a path based on his wish to restore order that make him the leader needed. Allowing him to build a following big enough to tame the chaos and reestablish a secure system for society at large. In this case, it is many times his connection to an old civilization, a prophecy, a vision or enlightenment that pushes the protagonist. In many case his mission as part of a resistance or feeling of self-responsibility allow him to win his fight, sometime in the cost of his own life. This second scenario depict a world in which the progressive part of society had gone too far, leading society into chaos. It is a quest toward reestablishing order and save the culture, history or roots of the people that is needed to recreate security for the benefit of all. For a very long and interesting reading on the subject, I will recommend Jordan Peterson book “Maps of meaning”.

While the two powers can go out of balance, it seems most likely that through our human evolution, it is exactly the healthy balance and support of both groups that allow humanity to prosper.  After all, security and familiarity are what allow human to spend time developing new inventions and philosophizing, while it is exactly this progress that render a system progressive and prevent rigidity and tyranny. Meaningful progress requires many time the existence of security and stability. it is the peace of mind, time and resources that allow many individuals and societies to see beyond the frame they are in. Maslo’s hierarchy of needs introduce the idea that as humans, we need to achieve or to obtain certain basic needs before moving to a more abstract and creative aspect of the human capacity. In many cases, it is not the wealth or plenty of an individual that allow him to spend time on creative work and self-development, but the general security and prosperity of the society he lives in. It is the structural culture that create a comfortable environment to develop progress. After all, if one is mainly busy with the daily need to find food, shelter and security for the next day, little time he will have to philosophize or be creative. Survival mode is not productive by itself. It is the existence of security and comfortability that bring forward the human capacity to think, invent and progress.

In their book “the fourth turning “Neil Howe and William Straus present a cyclical pattern in social evolution. One that follow a pattern of construction after a period of chaos, that leads to prosperity, then to an imbalance between the forces in society that brings to chaos (I made some slight adaptation based on the conversation mentioned above). From their side they speak of stagnation that appear after two generation as they do not remember the chaos and mainly enjoy prosperity, leading to a general decline in the third generation that bring chaos. After giving it a lot of thought I came to believe that while the idea “that strong man create good times that creates weak man that in their turn creates bad time” has a lot of sense to it, but ignores the fact we are a political being constantly fighting to establish a balance between the known and secure and the discovery of the unknown which can bring chaos on us all. I came to believe that it is not only the creation of weak man that promote hard time, but the rigidity of a system that push its people to demand progress in the price of potential chaos. As the weak generation is not only weak but ignorant of the dangers and outcome of the chaos they are playing with.

An important aspect of Neil Howe and William Straus theory can be used for this conversation. The reconstruction of societies after period of chaos are led by a healthy mixture of the need to progress with the fear of chaos. In such periods a need to conserve what has been saved from the chaos harmonize with the wish for progress. Pushing society forward. Historically and naturally, it is a healthy combination of the young energetic and curious part of society leading the progress, leaning on the knowledge, experience, calm and conservative older part of society that allow society to prosper. In other historical cases, a group of elder was established and respected. Their purpose was not to lead (as in many cases a young leader was appointed) but to consul and create a frame of healthy boundaries. It is in historical moments in which the young lose their belief in the system or decide that nothing is worth preserving, while the old do not maintain their roles as preservers of security and knowledge that chaos start to appear.

In our current days, it seems we reach a certain extreme. One that will potentially bring chaos and destruction on us all if we do not carefully manage to rebuild balance between the two forces. As I will show in my following articles, I believe that we are currently living in such an imbalance. One that is heavily leaning toward progressivism. In my previous book, “Meaning in the age of absurdity”, I dedicate a full section to the discussion about the relation between the loss of meaning and this dangerous state. Moreover, As I showed in my book, a counter movement is unavoidable. As we have seen in recent elections in the west a strong and extreme right movement is on the rise. Reflecting partly a cry for help from the conservatives in our society. If we are to maintain peace and prosperity in the western culture, the growth of extreme camps needs to be tamed. A new balance should be established for the benefit of future generations and the survival of democracy.

While I have no doubt in my mind that the current system has been hijacked by a group that do not have the interest of the people at heart, it is the growing population of extreme progressives that support it that allow it to prosper. It does not require a degree to understand that western society is in a dire need for change and progress, as the current system do not benefit big part of its population. From the other side, we cannot sacrifice our culture, values and countries just because we are unhappy with the current reality. I truly believe that if we are to find a solution to this crisis a deeper understanding of the two camps, how they emerge and what they represent is needed. Only then we will be able to honestly speak of where we are standing and from there hopefully find a peaceful solution. After all, history has taught us the horrific danger of allowing extreme progressivism and extreme conservatism to take over our societies. While it is clear to me that many people are angry, frustrated and mainly ignorant, I doubt most of us if not all of us truly support returning to such depressing, violent and tyrannical future.