The broad-stroke view of politics posits that conservatives are the pro-business faction. To an extent, it's true. Particularly in the fight against collectivization and Communism, we had a common cause.
One day we can look at things historically and see how new this alliance really is, but not today. Instead let's focus on the now. What should conservatism's relationship be with business?
Like the title says, I think we need a conditional alliance. There are plenty of areas where we have agreement -- reducing the size of government, protecting America's interests abroad, and so on. But a blanket pro-Business stance is naive.
The market enables us to live, but it can't tell us how to live. We need to bring our values to the market, not derive them from it. Especially as conservatives.
The market is creatively destructive. That's often necessary. But what happens when something historically precious is going to be destroyed? In such situations the liberals are often actually the ones being genuinely conservative.
The same could be said for the environment. While opposing the religion that environmentalism has become, conservatives should all be conservationists. Too often though, we fall into a reflexively pro-business stance.
Immigration is another good example. While the Wall Street Journal loves having millions of low-skilled workers cross the border to work for peanuts, conservatives should at least be asking what this influx means on a cultural and social level.
The area where we'll eventually see the biggest split is in the area of bioethics. As the technology advances, business will be drawn inexporably by potential profits. They'll lobby hard to have limits on cloning and genetic experimentation lifted. Not all of this will be bad. But it will inevitably take them into areas where conservatives cannot follow, and instead have to resist. Do we have the will to do so?
There are so many other areas where real conservatism and business part ways. One that drives me craziest is the commodification of sports. I love America's pasttimes, and I hate that corporations have co-opted every aspect of them -- from stadium names to putting Spider-Man webs on major league bases to advertise movies.
Conservatives understand that some things are priceless. Business thinks just the opposite -- everything has its price.
Posted by Discoshaman at février 5, 2005 09:17 PM | TrackBack
Agreed, the coalition between social conservatives (which is what I believe you are talking about) and big business arises out of a combination of factors. One of them is the pre-existing coalition between Labor and Leftism. Labor and and social conservatism aren't necessarily enemies, the Populist political philosphy is proof of that. Rather, Labor has in the US aligned itself with social 'progressivism', pushing social conservatives into the business/libertarian camp. Also, the coalition formed because of the communist threat during the cold war, both sides hated communism, and opposed it more stridently than forces on the left. Its really a marriage of convience more than anything else, big business in fact is theoretically more supportive of some aspects of social progressivism.
I do see a split sometime in the future, and I think you are right to assume it will be on bio-ethics. I have looked far into the future at times, and what I see scares me.
Posted by: Final Historian at février 5, 2005 10:34 PM
Bear in mind also that studies have indicated (though I can't source 'em right now) that CEOs of major corporations are disproportionately left-of-center. It is, as you say, a "marriage of convenience," and often a rather chilly one.
It seems to me that "business" is too broad of a category. Freemarkets are a thing, not a worldview or set of personal values.
What I'm trying to say is that as a conservative I'm committed to "business" in the same way I'm committed to the military. It's necessary. It's the way the world works. As an ideal, I actually believe that the profession of arms and the military of a free democracy are noble things, deserving respect and support.
But that doesn't mean that I think every soldier is a good soldier, that every military decision is a good decision, that every battle is a good battle. Those are individual cases, and the values of the soldier, officer or politician making them impact the outcome or wisdom of the decisions.
In the same way, I believe in freemarkets, in business and the benefits of capitalism. As someone who has been in both professional ministry and is now in the business world, I even believe in the nobility of trying to serve clients, build a better mousetrap and blessing families by making payroll every two weeks.
But that doesn't mean that every businessman, or every company, or every business decision is wise or good. Business is a venue, an arena. The players in that arena bring their values into it, and act according to those values.
It seems to me like what Plato -- and the American founding fahers -- talked about. Political or economic systems succeed or fail based on the souls of the people in them. Yes, those systems can facilitate or inhibit success, but a necessary componenent is people with internal gyroscopes that orient them to make good decisions as the move through their business or political day.
Disco, I agree with how horribly crass professional sports has come. But I'm not sure that it is a function of business as much as it is a reflection of the crassness of our souls in this age.
And yes, THE watershed issue of our lives will be bioethics and business.
Posted by: Greg at février 6, 2005 12:54 AM"We need to bring our values to the market, not derive them from it."
I agree...and I think you put it very well. Too often the issue is described as a market vs. social/values one, as if there should be some sort of 'healthy balance' of the two side-by-side. That's not going to work, beause the two things are entirely different. Instead, we need to take our values to the market, and let it do the rest.
I beg to disagree here, though:
"Immigration is another good example...
conservatives should at least be asking what this influx means on a cultural and social level."
They are asking in Britain - the whole time - and it's one of the main reasons that they've lost my vote. I don't think racial and ethnic tension is an unchangeable fact of life, and I don't think that one can say 'immigration causes social issues, therefore we should curb it.' On this issue, the UK Conservatives are just making current tensions worse.