Conservative in Infrastructure, Liberal in Thinking

While I have railed upon conservative thinking as related to business practices, I have realized that I in certain ways am a conservative. It is humbling to realize this, because I do see certain ways of non-thinking conservativism as a death sentence. If one is trapped in a dark cave with no tools are you going to be able to rely upon conservative thinking to escape? Isn’t it going to demand a more direct and immediate solution like what is taught in the United States Army? “Just do it!” “Get ‘er done.” These catch phrases do have relevance, as I learned from my former Sergeant in the Air Force brother-in-law. He was the one who taught me thinking about a task too much prohibits its accomplishment. There are certain jobs that merit brute force. That means all the thoughtful retrospection in the world will not help solve the problem. Your animal instincts should take over and the survival of the fittest wins. It is pure adrenaline. In this way as an educator with a Teaching Certificate (although now expired) I do believe being actively engaged in the learning or solving process is important. Sitting around on one’s laurels with a gavel in hand will not help solve the social or political problems of today. Instead we need active engagement, and that is difficult because of the recent history of the White House. When the majority agenda of our leaders is covert and selfish, it becomes difficult for media to get their hands around the issues. It takes forceful authoritative journalism to expose truths. When Extreme Terrorism is stirred into the soup media could become shy about their jobs. We are all faced with the controversial decision of wanting to support our country’s politics while equally wanting them to be honest. That means an adult stance must be taken like parents in a family. The parents need and want love from their children, but at the same time the children must be disciplined by a neutral force. Tough love must take over the well-being of the future of the child becomes paramount. We must treat our government the same way. This administration is incapable of providing the leadership and legislation we need today, because they are conservative. Conservative in this context means there is no room for new things. Coming to a new understanding of an issue that didn’t exist in your history before is a precursor to enlightenment. If one is so stumped in their own pitiful and small world they will have no interest in understanding anything new. Instead they will cling to the past, because this allows them to exist in a harmless shell of instinctual behavior that does not require active thought and accommodation and assimilation of new knowledge. It is comfortable. The Kennedy family was “comfortable.” Jackie O. always said, “Things were nice.” While there is a certain model of “nice,” it can be seen to come from the aristocracy in Europe. America never has been known as a model of Europe. We instead are known as head-strong rebels standing up for the ideas of freedom. To fight for one’s freedom is not to sit and a castle and eat tea and crumpets. Fighting for freedom means being engaged in current issues and being willing to fight for your cause. Hillary said in a recent speech that the path of diplomacy was closed. That means that no one in the White House is even willing to entertain a dialog with our enemies, because we are too afraid and cemented in our own frail habits to be able to confront controversy. To confront change one must have a solid understanding and allegiance to one’s own principles, and they must be public. When this is not the case an administration will be unable to confront the enemy on a diplomatic level, because hypocrisy will prevent an honest solution. Liberal thinking is essential. Conversely one area where conservative thinking could be effective is concerning infrastructure. I realized within the last few years every street corner in the American South has been bought by drug companies. This easily could be attributed to urban sprawl. Then the notion presents itself that all of those Walgreens, CVS Pharmacies, and Eckerds Drugs were all competing for street corners. How ironically the local ghetto drug dealer’s corners were taken over by large pharmaceutical companies. This is representative of a larger scale movement in America where our land is being bought up by big business. This movement is not conservative, because conservative thinking would have kept in place the model of the village. Drug stores would not have taken on the model of large wholesale outlets such as Home Depot, Lowe’s and Best Buy. Could this be considered liberal thinking, or is it better characterized by “extreme” thinking? It seems somewhat extreme for buildings to spout on the corners of our intersections that look like fortresses. Instead of keeping the enemy at bay with a moat and drawbridge they are supposed to offer comfort. I don’t think this has been a successful model of health care, offering drive through service for drugs. To suggest something as serious and important as a prescription can be obtained from a drive up window is to undermine the health care process. “Get your drugs! Get your drugs right here.” The position of the local drug dealer, like indy music labels have been exploited by big business. Do we want our health care administered on a massive scale, or do we want our medicine personal and confidential? The drug companies have eliminated that possibility. While once you could have a local neighborhood doctor come to your home with a little black bag, now a stream of middle men must approve your hemorrhoid treatments. Is this suitable for America and concurrent with conservative values? It seems to me Extremism has been at work in American business and politics for years hidden under the ruse of conservatism effectively decapitating real liberal thought.