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What was it that one learned through a great books curriculum? Certainly not "conservatism" in any contemporary American sense of the term. We were not taught to become American patriots, or religious pietists, or to worship what Rudyard Kipling called "the Gods of the Market Place." We were not instructed in the evils of Marxism, or the glories of capitalism, or even the superiority of Western civilization.
As I think about it, I'm not sure we were taught anything at all. What we did was read books that raised serious questions about the human condition, and which invited us to attempt to ask serious questions of our own. Education, in this sense, wasn't a "teaching" with any fixed lesson. It was an exercise in interrogation.
To listen and understand; to question and disagree; to treat no proposition as sacred and no objection as impious; to be willing to entertain unpopular ideas and cultivate the habits of an open mind — this is what I was encouraged to do by my teachers at the University of Chicago.
It's what used to be called a liberal education.
The University of Chicago showed us something else: that every great idea is really just a spectacular disagreement with some other great idea.
Bret Stephens's speech warrants a full read. It makes valuable points that we all need to hear, even on SN.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 27 2017, @11:09PM
I completely disagree. I'm as liberal as it gets - centrist by all definitions. And I stand behind preserving of sanctity of an institution, like the UN, like the EU, like the European Court of Justice. Seems that likes of American Conservatives are against this these days?? So your point is invalid? Or maybe Trump and like him are no conservative, but a nationalists that believes capitalism should be for the state ... there is a word for that ... oh yeah, fascists.
Respect for authority -- authority comes from the people, and people then respect authority that respects them. When you have police forces that respect human rights, then you have population that respects them in return. But if all you have is fear, then fear is not respect. Anyway, every society requires and needs order. Order is more important than almost anything else, because without order, you have chaos. You need to get order by any means necessary, then worry about respect.
As for "being sensitive to the feelings of others", I frankly could care less. Feeling of individuals are not important if some decision makes society more *fair*. You see, liberal views have less to do with "feelings". They have much more to do with *fairness*. A liberal society is where every member has as equal ability to succeed in their life as any other, as much as possible.
So I'm not sure what argument you are trying to make here. Maybe a backward one? Like imaging a conservative that actually cares to CONSERVE things? Sustainability should have been what "conservatives" should be standing for, instead of radicalism. You know, sustainable environments, budgets, society. Image conservatives standing up to these fake conservatives -- right...