Good points. I certainly don’t know how any individual conservative would justify any of their positions. The Fijian example is admittedly a little silly to work with, but based on my experience of contemporary American politics I would bet that the strong majority of Fijian conservatives would not cite Chesterton’s Fence-esque reasons for their position. True, the “thoughtful” or intellectual elite conservatives might, but these individuals are often deemed “thoughtful” and survive in academia or other elite liberal institutions because their style of thinking is at least a little more appealing to their more numerous liberal colleagues.
Good points. I certainly don’t know how any individual conservative would justify any of their positions. The Fijian example is admittedly a little silly to work with, but based on my experience of contemporary American politics I would bet that the strong majority of Fijian conservatives would not cite Chesterton’s Fence-esque reasons for their position. True, the “thoughtful” or intellectual elite conservatives might, but these individuals are often deemed “thoughtful” and survive in academia or other elite liberal institutions because their style of thinking is at least a little more appealing to their more numerous liberal colleagues.