A brief history of Conservatism

Edmund Burke and Joseph de Maistre are founders of modern conservative thought. Most of their political theory was created while writing about the French Revolution.

They were both influenced by Thomas Hobbes whose works were more focused on the previous English Civil War.
All 3 of these men defended the concept of maintaining a monarchy. They found the idea of a democracy controlled by the common people "repulsive".

They believed that the problem was not the monarchy system that leads to revolution, but that the wrong people were in charge. Perhaps bloodline hierarchy was not the most efficient means of controlling the populace, but another system with similar results could take its place. Burke especially wanted to know how the nobility could keep their position after the dissolution of the monarchy.

In the early 19th century the prevailing economic theory of the time was championed by Adam Smith. It is known primarily as the Labor Theory of Value.

Labor Theory of Value or LTV

This theory formed the basis of what would later be considered The Marginal Revolution. It had leading men such as Stanley Jevons, Carl Menger, and Leon Malras. The concentration of their efforts was on marginalism. Marginalism in simple terms is the idea that a created product and how it benefits the consumer is of more value than the labor required to produce it. The collage of theories created roughly after Burke but before Hayek coagulated into what is modern conservatism.

Friedrich Nietzsche - Only the most intellectual of men have the right to beauty, to the beautiful, only in them can goodness escape being a weakness.

James Fitzjames Stephen - To obey a real superior, to submit to a real necessity and make the best of it in good part, is one of the most important of all virtues-a virtue essential to the attainment of anything great and lasting.

Hayek- The freedom that will be used by only one man in a million may be more important to society and more beneficial to the majority than any freedom that we all use.

Joseph Schumpeter- What may be attained by industrial or commercial success is still the nearest approach to medieval lordship possible to modern man.

Conservatism upholds the status quo and defends the powerful. First from democracy, now from social justice.

Conservatism is a reactionary politics that has, at best, mixed feelings about democracy.

Liberalism is ill-equipped to deal with the problem of conservatism and does fully commit to its democratic principles.

References:

Alt-America, by David Neiwert
Alternative Influence, by Rebecca Lewis
Civility in the Digital Age, by Andrea Weckerle
Don’t Think of an Elephant, by George Lakoff
Eclipse of Reason, by Max Horkheimer
Fascism Today, by Shane Burley
Healing from Hate, by Michael Kimmel
How Propaganda Works, by Jason Stanley
Indoctrination over Objectivity?, by Marrissa S. Ballard
Media Manipulation & Disinformation Online, by Alice Marwick and Rebecca Lewis
Neoliberalism and the Far Right, by Neil Davidson and Richard Saull
On Revolution, by Hannah Arendt
Stamped from the Beginning, Ibram X. Kendi
Terror, Love, and Brainwashing, by Alexandra Stein
The Anatomy of Fascism, by Robert O. Paxton
The Authoritarians, by Bob Altemeyer
The Dictator’s Handbook, by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita & Alastair Smith
The Entrepreneurial State, by Mariana Mazzucato
The Origins of Totalitarianism, by Hannah Arendt
This is an Uprising, by Mark and Paul Engler
Ur-Fascism, by Umberto Eco