6 Essentials of Conservative-liberalism

There are six concepts that I feel are essential to conservatism. These aren't just “my six conservative principles”, instead these are the six principles that I propose are essential to conservatism. I have written them in a way that builds one on top of the other. Let me know if you can see how they are all connected.

Individualism

Individualism is the idea that all humans are equal. We are equal in essence, and therefore equal in rights, and therefore equal before the law. We are all one people, not to be divided by religion, political party, ethnicity, gender, or any such thing. Yet, each of us is a unique individual. We each have similarities and differences that we can find with each human being on Earth.

Negative rights

Negative rights are rights that only require inaction on the part of others. Your right to life, requires that others NOT kill you. Your right to free speech requires that others NOT stop you from talking (although you can't force them to listen, either). Negative rights boils down to your right to be left alone. This is in stark contrast with positive rights, which are entitlements to free stuff. Negative rights must be protected in order to maintain civilization, and those who violate negative rights must be punished (usually by having their rights proportionally violated).

Personal virtue and liberty

When we protect everyone's negative rights, we create a society with the purest form of liberty, but in order to maintain this pure liberty, we must have virtue, which can be defined as moral excellence. Someone who pursues moral excellence (virtue) can be expected to give liberty to his fellow-man. In fact liberty can be considered the most basic form of virtue.

He can also be expected to pursue the highest good for himself and others. He will seek mutually-beneficial trades, that will lift up both himself and his fellow-man. He will give to the poor, without government coercion. He will stay away from substances and activities which harm himself and those around him.

A perfectly moral population would need no government, but no one is perfectly moral. However, the more moral a population, the smaller government that they will require. This concept is the often unspoken core of conservatism. If we want greater liberty, we need to promote the highest virtue, in the greatest number of people. Virtue cannot be brought by force, from the top down, except for severely punishing those who violate negative rights. Instead virtue must be taught from the ground up.

Limited government

The government is an institution, set up by the people, to protect the negative rights of their citizens. The job of the government is to recognize different rights, create laws to protect those rights, and punish those who break the law. In America, we have a contract with our government called the Constitution. Our government promises to protect certain negative rights, and we promise not to overthrow them. At least that's supposed to be the idea.

Decentralization

Our Constitution limits the government's power, and the Tenth Amendment delegates all other powers, not mentioned, to the states or to the people. This protects us from centralizing power, which leads to more micro-managing from bureaucrats in the capitol. An effective government delegates power as much as possible. The federal government delegates power to the states, states to counties, cities, and towns, and from there to private institutions, families, and individuals.

Free enterprise

Free enterprise is based off of two negative rights: your right to your own property and your right to control how you use your property. When these rights are truly carried out, we create a free enterprise, and wealth is generated. Not money, but wealth. Wealth is generated primarily when there is a mutually-beneficial exchange. When both parties in a trade win, they walk away wealthier than they were before. This doesn't eliminate poverty, as we can never eliminate poverty. However, it can alleviate the severity of poverty.

So What Do You Think?

Please share this post if you liked it. Also, tell me what you think. Tweet at me @frank_perseo or comment on the Frank Talks Facebook page. Did I miss any essential concepts in conservatism? Do you disagree with any of the ones I presented? If so, please tell me why. I am curious to know.

Fame

I'm sure we've all dreamed of being famous. We all would love to be universally loved and respected. However, some of us may have decided in the end that we value other things more than popularity (like privacy or sanity). Nonetheless, if you are in any kind of business, you are most likely looking for a way to boost the recognition of your product/brand/business.

Wouldn't you love your brand to be globally recognized? Whether you are a blogger, a YouTuber, an entrepreneur, or you aspire to be a Hollywood celebrity. Too bad we can't all be world famous like Coca-Cola or Brad Pitt. ... Or can we?

Is the Hall of Fame Getting Crowded?

I mean, is it just me, or are there more celebrities in the world these days? It seems like all the time there are more and more people that I am supposed to be able to recognize. When I am watching a movie or TV show, I will often google the actors and peruse through their filmographies. I'm not obsessed, I don't read tabloids, but I like to know a bit about these guys and their work. I find it interesting, and I know I'm not alone in this, because our culture is obsessed with celebrities.

In my time studying the who's who in Hollywood, I've often wondered something: is the number of celebrities in the world growing? Surely, in ancient history there were very few figures who were world renowned, or even who's reputation spread through multiple nations. I'm sure this changed as the world began to become more connected.

Impact of Technology

Telegraphs, radio, movies, and television and many other inventions made it possible for people to become world famous. Not only that, but they allowed more and more people to achieve that world-fame. The connectivity that these technologies provided, allowed us to share our cultures more easily with other countries. However, they still limit recognition to the elite few.

Then the Internet comes along and completely changes the game. Internet innovations allow regular people to connect with an audience, and to grow that audience. The internet even created a new class of fame: internet-famous. These people are known by thousands and millions of people, but are not quite household names. Internet-fame is to recognition, what the middle-class is to economic status.

How Wealth is like Fame

Wealth is not a single pie which needs to be divided evenly among all the people. A better analogy for wealth would come from agriculture: seeds and crops, which have the ability to multiply. Through hard work, innovation and trade, we can create new wealth. In two previous blogs, I have argued for this concept. Both of these blog posts were inspired by this video, which explains the concept a little more fully than I do.

Recognition is capital in the same way the money is. I think anyone would agree that recognition is always an asset for your brand. Much like wealth, recognition is a resource with very little limits. Not every brand or personality can achieve the status of being a house-hold name. However, there are two factors which are increasing: the number of people in the world, and connectivity through the Internet.

Our culture treats wealth and fame like they are inherently evil things, like those who pursue them must be selling out. I would contend that neither is inherently evil, it all depends on what you do with your money or recognition. You can use wealth to donate to charity, give people jobs, or buy a bunch of equipment and fight crime as the Batman. Fame can also be used for good. You can use recognition (or today, a following) to bring light to issues, events and even to good artwork.

How to Grow Your Recognition

Do you remember the end of the Muppet Movie, where Kermit and the Muppets finally make it to Hollywood, find a producer, and say to him "We'd like the rich and famous contract please." Yeah, I'd like that contract too. No seriously. Where can I find this contract? I would like to know. Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that.

You grow your audience the same way that you grow your wealth: through hard work, innovation and trade. You work hard and get creative to make content that people will enjoy. Innovations in internet advertising allow us to target specific audiences. While free-trade happens all through the advertising process, one of the greatest ways to expand your reach is through collaboration.

Collaborating with other creators is like free-trade: you can both grow your reach, and walk away with more followers. You want to collaborate with creators who make content similar to your own. We've all seen stars on YouTube who have grown this way. When YouTube stars first started collaborating, that's when the community (and the individual stars) really started to take off. By continually creating more (and better) content, you can continue to grow your reach.

As your recognition grows, you can collect bigger profits. As you collect bigger profits, you can hire more people... and become Batman.

So that's why I'm not afraid to say that I want to be rich and famous. Please share this post if you liked it. I just really want to become Batman. Also, tell me what you think. Tweet at me @frank_perseo or comment on the Frank Talks facebook page. 

Wealth

A proper understanding of wealth is important in leading a holistic life. In previous blogs I have talked about the importance of growing and excelling in all areas of life, including, but not limited to, spiritual, intellectual, physical, occupational, social, and financial areas. In this blog, I want to talk specifically about the financial area.

First, let us define wealth. Wealth is anything of value, particularly having more than what you need to survive: an abundance. So what place does wealth have in a successful holistic life? Many fall into the trap of measuring their success purely in terms of wealth. Often, their success in this one area can come at the expense of growth in another area. Maybe they have sacrificed relationships (social) to gain financial success, or they might never take a break (occupational/recreational) in their pursuit of success. On the other extreme, I hear people make the mistake that that wealth is not important, or worse, that it is evil.

In another post I can deal with the moral value of wealth. For my Christian readers, I can talk about what the Bible does and does not say about wealth. However, for this post I want to talk a bit about how to view wealth, and how to excel in the financial area.

Two Views

There are at least two ways in which one can view wealth. The most common view that I hear, sees wealth being analogous to a pie. Those who hold this view protest that one percent of the population own forty percent of the wealth. If all the wealth in the world is one single pie, then it is only fair that we cut the pie into even pieces, and that no one gets more than their fair share. If this is true, than rich people are evil and greedy, because they took a bigger piece of the pie. Those greedy fat jerks! Also, as the population continues to grow, we will need to split the pie into even smaller pieces.

But what if there is a different way to view wealth? What if wealth is not in fact static, but actually grows? Instead of being a pie that must be divided into smaller pieces, what if wealth is like a seed, with potential to multiply. This might sound crazy. We are all told that money doesn't grow on trees.

Wealth Grows

We all have resources: time, skills, talents, and even money. Let's imagine that those resources are like seeds. Some may have more than others, but we all have something. A seed, when you plant it in the ground, it brings forth fruit and more seed. You have multiplied your resources. You can plant those seeds and continue to multiply your wealth.

Now let's connect this analogy to actual wealth. There are three ways that we can multiply wealth: innovation, effort, and trade.

Innovation

One of the ways in which we create wealth, add value to the world, is through innovation. I've talked about this is a previous blog. I can take relatively cheap canvas, paint, and utensils, then through innovation (creativity) I can create an artistic masterpiece. If I'm a talented or skilled artist, the final product could be worth far more than the sum of the original parts.

Another form of innovation is technology. Sand, for instance, is relatively cheap. However, with ingenuity, a little work, and a few more pieces we can create micro-chips. Through scientific innovation, the common component of sand has been transformed into a micro-chip, which is more valuable than the original sand.

Effort

Both of the above examples (of the painting and the micro-chip) require effort, but some instances of wealth creation require little or no innovation. If I work as a cashier, I provide a service to a store, which adds value to the store, and they pay me for it. I took a resource, my time, and used it to add value to the store. In return they pay me.

The same thing happens if you pay me ten bucks to mow your front lawn. You value the mowed lawn, and I value the ten dollars. Something else has happened in both of these cases, the cashier and the lawn mower. In both cases there was a trade, where both parties win! As a cashier, I provide a service for the store (which brings them revenue), and they pay me.

Trade

Let's say that I am selling hot dogs at a hot dog stand, and you are hungry for some hot dogs. I have hot dogs, but I want money to pay my bills. You have cash, and you want some hot dogs. So we trade hot dogs for cash. Who wins in this scenario? Answer: we both win!

Trade of this nature is mutually-beneficial. This means that we both win, because we both walk away with something we value more than what we previously had. Now if you took a hot dog from me by force, then only you win. If you took all of my hot dogs, and got away with it, then I would go out of business and lose big time.

Conclusion

So anyone can multiply their wealth through these three methods: innovation, effort, and trade. Wealth is not simply a pie that we must evenly redistribute. Therefore, a key to success in holistic life is to add value to the world around you. We can add value to our physical possessions, through the aforementioned methods. We can add value to others by investing time in them and encouraging them to become better persons. We can add value to ourselves, by growing in any of the areas of our own life.

There are so many implications to this concept, which I am hoping to unpack in future blogs. So what do you think? Tweet at me @frank_perseo or comment on this post on the “Frank Talks” Facebook page. What are some of the implications of wealth being able to multiply? What are some ways that you add value to the world? What are some things that you want to add value to the world?

Is money evil?

Money isn't evil, and neither are rich people

Let's say I buy some canvas-paper and paints. Cheap items, that I can get in a department store, or even a fancy craft shop. Now, lets imagine even farther from reality and pretend that I am a talented artist. As an artist of great skill, I use the materials that I have bought so inexpensively, and create a great masterpiece, something of great value. Something fantastic has just been done... wealth has just been created.

As a struggling artist, unemployed (not imagination), I put my painting up for sale. A patron loves the work, and pays a large sum to own it. Hear me out, this isn't just money being moved from the patron's account to mine, no, wealth has been created.

Let's look at another example. Let's say I'm a microchip manufacturer. I buy truckloads of sand (which is worthless) and by using the ingenuity of modern science, I turn that sand into a microchip. This sand has not simply been changed from one state to another, it has been turned from something relatively cheap, to something relatively more valuable.

In one final analogy, let's say that I'm unemployed (which would be accurate to say). Let's say that you ask me to mow your lawn, and I agree to do it for 40 bucks an acre. I work hard in the sun, and when the job is done you are happy and pay me my money. You value the cut lawn more than whatever amount you wound up paying me.

You see the painted masterpiece, the microchip, and the cut lawn are worth more than the craft supplies, the sand, and the unkempt lawn. In these scenarios, I have used creativity, intelligence, and hard work to improve them and make them more valuable. By extension, I have also made the world a better place by creating value, and therefore creating wealth. Let that sink in.

Wealth has been created. Money is simply a unit of exchange which represents wealth. I have provided a product or service, which you valued, and have benefited society.

Today we talk about those "evil one-percent", but if you consider what I have presented just now, those evil people may not be so evil. Maybe they are scumbags in their personal life, but their personal wealth represents only a fraction of the wealth they've created and given away to others.