I think conservatism is indeed linked to resistance to change at a deep level. But at a deeper one, it also accepts change as an integral part of human organization and society. What distinguishes conservatives in the sense I prefer from liberals is a residual respect for what has been, a desire to understand it before changing it.
...
They key is the mechanism for change - whether it springs from the experiential intimations of the past and present or from the abstract certainty of the rational mind. The former is conservative; the latter liberal. -AS
Eh. Tempus fugit.
Part of the problem with developing a propensity to "respect" the past is that it is not residual, too often; that it is primary and not understood (notwithstanding how "the past" might be "understood", exactly, without appeal also to the "abstract certainty of the rational mind"); that those who cultivate that bias either start to live in the past, too often, or do so merely as a rationalization of the past history of capital accumulation that favors their social stande.
Prudence alone can tell us when to apply which.
Indeed, but I'd never concede that practical wisdom is the province of conservatism alone.
