You Know It Makes Sense

30 May 2009

The right to swear is integral to being a true conservative

Which is why we should be so suspicious of any conservative, of whatever supposed hue, who tries to argue the case for greater regulation, bigger government or higher taxation. Whether it’s the Tory MP Ann Widdecombe supporting the fox-hunting ban, David Cameron endorsing tax rises and defending the bloated NHS, US RINOs like Arnie Schwarzenegger crippling the economy with ‘green’ tax initiatives, or the Christian Right demanding tougher, government-enforced public morality, they’re all part of the same problem. They have completely misunderstood the unique selling point of the conservative brand.

That USP is liberty. Sure, there’s a ‘conserving’ element to conservatism too — one that derives from tradition and custom, and respects the established social order embodied in institutions like church and schools and family. But to emphasise that part to the exclusion of the personal freedom part is as wrongheaded and self-defeating as to suggest that sex is always about procreation and never about pleasure.

The reason I’m a conservative is that I believe in life at least as much as I believe in the afterlife. I have, on occasion, drunk to excess; I have driven too fast; I have imbibed rare herbs and proscribed chemicals; I have in my youth — though not nearly often enough — enjoyed meaningless sex with beautiful strangers; and, yes, I still swear. You can do all these things and still be an honest-to-God, properly authentic, ideologically pure, first-principles conservative. This is the glory of conservatism: it’s the catch-all, be-all-you-can-be philosophy that embraces saints and sinners alike.

I’m sorry that American Family Radio missed this subtlety, because theirs is the kind of blinkered attitude that does no service to the conservative cause. And guys, it goes without saying if you’d had me on the show, I wouldn’t have dropped the ‘F-bomb’. I save that sort of language for my kids.

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paul C

May 29th, 2009 10:26am Report this comment

Nicely put, James

Rob Slack

May 29th, 2009 5:46pm Report this comment

I am writing this to see if it makes it through. Almost (if not all) I have ever tried to post has vanished into the ether. No bad language or personla comments (possible wrong on the last point). Am I banned?

Wayland

May 30th, 2009 9:08pm Report this comment

Yeah, I like that sort of conservatism. Beats the fascist Labour government we have now. What a shame that there is not a party or candidate I can vote for who thinks like this.

Richard L

May 31st, 2009 9:53am Report this comment

Nicely argued, very thoughtful - and spot on. A Libertarian view in the old, true sense of the term.

Jeremy

June 3rd, 2009 8:24pm Report this comment

I'm glad you wrote this piece and I think that what you had to say needed saying. After many years of Labour and the EU I can see how things, people, modes of dress and behaviour have become increasingly standardised and conformist. These things are the result of big-state monitoring and regulation and are, or course, essentially anti-conservative. Conservatism to me is about the autonomy of the individual. And that is about freedom of thought and expression. The freedom to dress as you please and to think as you like. And also the freedom to disagree with the majority, the state and whatever the fashionable orthodoxies of your day may be. Conservatism is not about big-state blueprints for the masses. It is not about uniformity and conformity to the state's idea of what you - and by extension all of its citizens - should be, should wear, should think and should say.

But then - like yourself, I imagine - I am an English conservative. The American variety has never struck me as being true conservatism.

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