May 2, 2025

Conservative, n. A statesman who is enamoured of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-c.1914), American writer, The Cynic’s Word Book, 1906, Jay p.44

Very droll, as always with Bierce, but is he right? Is the conservative enamored, or just resigned? And is the liberal belief in the perfectibility of humankind anything other than a chimera?

If Bierce is correct, there would be little or no improvement in human morality over time, but there has been. Think of the ending of slavery in the British Empire and the U.S.A., and of apartheid in South Africa. But whatever progress liberals might want to claim, it is always constrained in many ways—two steps forward, one step back, and sometimes two or three.