RateItAll: The Opinion Network

Change is fine, but only if it's needed. It seems like some are adamant for change just for the sake of change or, more likely of late, just because someone else doesn't want it. It's a bumper sticker, I know, but it rings true: If it ain't broke don't fix it.

In turn, when change is needed (social security) the left stands hard against it. Go figure.

I find this to be true to a greater degree than those on the right who are against all changes. Over the years I've had a lot of friends on the left and at one time I was far more politically liberal than I am today. The problem with being too flexible is when folks on the left see something which needs to be corrected they want the changes to take place right away. When that happens it often comes at the expense of thinking things through and weighing possible consequences. A good example has been the issue of not allowing certain maintenance procedures to take place in our forests and the result has been large amounts of fuel for many of the recent fires. It's also nature's way of saying "if you're not going to maintain the forests then I'm going to do it for you." Unfortunately nature's way has come at the expense of lives and property. My Conservative philosophy likens society to a human body. The human body must constantly change and create new cells or else it will die. Likewise, society must also continue to change or it too will die. But to make radical changes too quickly does to society what cancer does to a body. Change must be organized and done at the pace most advantageous to the body. Dragging one's feet is just as detrimental as we have seen in the medical field where other countries are using drugs which should be available here, but the government agencies which oversee such things can't seem to get their head out of their ass. Conservatives are not against change but liberal policies of the last 40 years have shown, just as with a human body, uncontrolled changes in society, like uncontrolled changes in human cells, in the end, destroys its host.

The conservative Irving Kristol once said that "a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged." Or something like that. There's something to be said for the idea that liberals tend to back down in adverse circumstances. I've seen way too many liberals look for scapegoats, such as other races, as soon as life gets hard. Of course, that problem seems to be shared with many other groups.