“Jesus said to the Twelve: “Fear no one. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed.” Matthew 10: 26
Barry Goldwater once defined conservatism as “applying knowledge from education, experience, and moral values as revealed truths of the past, to the problems of today.” Embedded in that definition is a worldview that refuses to treat truth as disposable or temporary. He understood something many modern movements overlook: truth does not change, and therefore the solutions built upon truth remain reliable across generations.
This way of thinking does more than shape political philosophy. It shapes the conditions for prosperity, stability, and human flourishing in ways that fast‑shifting progressive ideologies struggle to match for the long term.
Conservatism begins with a simple conviction: the world is governed by enduring principles, not by passing trends. Human nature, moral law, cause and effect, these constants do not bend to opinion polls or cultural moods. When a society roots its decisions in what has already proven true through history, it gains the advantage of accumulated wisdom. It avoids repeating mistakes. It builds on foundations that have already held firm.
This is why Ronald Reagan’s approach breeds prosperity. Prosperity requires stability. Stability requires order. And order requires truths that do not shift with every cultural breeze. A society that honors the lessons of the past, lessons about work, responsibility, family, faith, and freedom, creates an environment where individuals can build, invest, and dream without fear that the ground beneath them will be rewritten tomorrow.
By contrast, modern progressive and liberal movements often treat truth as fluid and morality as negotiable. They create fear out of changes that are really individual based; that governments cannot solve, only the individual can. Their solutions tend to rely on constant reinvention, new systems, new definitions, new social experiments. While innovation is good, a society cannot rebuild its moral and cultural architecture every decade and expect long‑term comfort or prosperity. When everything is up for revision, nothing is secure. When values shift with emotion or ideology, people lose the anchors that give life coherence.
Conservatism offers something different: continuity. It says that the wisdom of the past is not a burden but a gift. It insists that education is not merely indoctrination but formation. It teaches that experience is not accidental but instructive. And it affirms that moral values, tested by centuries, are not obstacles to progress but the very conditions that make progress possible.
This worldview produces comfort because it produces clarity. People know what is expected of them. They know what is right and wrong. They know what leads to flourishing and what leads to decline. Families can raise children with confidence. Communities can build institutions that last. Individuals can pursue excellence without waiting for the next ideological shift to redefine success.
In a world that often feels unstable, Goldwater’s definition of conservatism offers a path back to sanity: apply what is true, proven, and principled to the challenges of today. It is not nostalgic. It is not rigid. It is simply wise.
If this is my last post, I want all to know there was only one purpose for all that I have written; to have made a positive difference in the lives of others.
Anthony “Tony” Boquet, Solutionary, author of “The Bloodline of Wisdom, The Awakening of a Modern Solutionary” and “The Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, A Devotional Timeline”