Prudence Is the Definition of Conservatism

[leilani]

January 23, 2022

Prudence Is the Definition of Conservatism

By Jeffrey Folks


In a recent year, only 69 girls born in America were named "Prudence." That's a shame, because Prudence is not only a lovely name, but also an important virtue — one that we ought frequently to be reminded of.



For conservatives in particular, prudence is a key virtue. The very nature of conservatism centers on conserving and preserving. A conservative is prudent by nature since he wishes to preserve his moral and cultural inheritance and, indeed, to preserve life itself. A conservative cares about life in a way that liberals do not: rather than experimenting with untested and self-serving theories, he is mostly guided by what he has learned from the past and by what he knows to be right.



It is wise to be prudent because life is full of twists and turns that may do us harm. Every religion teaches of the dangers we face and of the need to take care to avoid violence, accident, illness, bankruptcy, divorce, and other sources of harm. A thoughtful person — which is to say, a conservative — takes steps to live in a safe, healthy, and financially secure manner. Even then, disasters may befall him, but his chances of success in life (not just wealth and status, but true happiness) are far greater than that of a heedless liberal. A week before he was assassinated in Los Angeles, Bobby Kennedy walked past me and a hundred others, two feet away, with no bodyguard. His death was tragic but unnecessary, and I believe that it resulted in part from a familiar sort of liberal hubris — the same lack of prudence that led JFK to ride through Dallas in a limo convertible and other members of the Kennedy family to die or cause the deaths of others. Indeed, imprudence is harmful to others, not just to ourselves.

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