Victor Davis Hanson Explains the Difference between American & European Conservatism | Policy Briefs — Transcript

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1. 0:00We know Americans' idea of conservatism
2. 0:02is a little different from the European
3. 0:04tradition. From the founding of the
4. 0:06West, there were three concepts that
5. 0:07were associated with consensual
6. 0:09governments and individual citizens:
7. 0:12liberty, freedom, and equality.
8. 0:15Liberty was not always fully
9. 0:16appreciated. It's from a Latin word,
10. 0:18libertas,
11. 0:20and means the ability to retain personal
12. 0:22freedom
13. 0:23within the confines of the state.
14. 0:26But freedom was a bit different. The
15. 0:28word free had no classical Latin or
16. 0:30Greek root.
17. 0:31It was instead from Germany, and it
18. 0:33arose from early German tribes living in
19. 0:35open spaces who were naturally free
20. 0:38without restraint. They didn't worry
21. 0:40about the formalized idea of liberty
22. 0:42because they didn't have a state or
23. 0:44concerns about preserving their natural
24. 0:46freedoms within a government. So liberty
25. 0:49was this classical idea of emphasizing
26. 0:51freedoms within the context of
27. 0:53protecting it from government, in
28. 0:55contrast to enjoying freedom of choice
29. 0:57in a natural landscape.
30. 0:59Equality was still another distinct
31. 1:01ideal among the enlightenment movement
32. 1:03of our founders,
33. 1:05and was quite unlike the later French
34. 1:07Revolution notion of an enforced
35. 1:08equality of result, or what we now may
36. 1:11call equity.
37. 1:13In the American tradition, we believe
38. 1:14that the aim of society is not an
39. 1:16absolute equality of result,
40. 1:18but rather an equality of opportunity
41. 1:21and the freedom to either succeed or
42. 1:23fail on one's own merits.
43. 1:25The notion of seeking rather than
44. 1:27mandating fairness is a universal
45. 1:29concept among the population. We would
46. 1:31encourage that all citizens had at least
47. 1:33some modicum of goods and services,
48. 1:36security, prosperity, and property
49. 1:38necessary for survival. But there was no
50. 1:41desire to force everybody to become the
51. 1:43same because that equality of result
52. 1:45would require, as we learned in the 20th
53. 1:47century from various aspects of
54. 1:50communism and socialism, a degree of
55. 1:53government coercion, one that would be
56. 1:54absolutely dangerous to both liberty and
57. 1:57freedom.
58. 1:58The conservative in this country is a
59. 2:00proponent of personal liberty within the
60. 2:02confines of government, seeks freedom in
61. 2:05his private life,
62. 2:07and expects a fair shot at success
63. 2:10on his own merits.