Conservatism killed the cat.
There was once a cat. Nimble and curious. She wanted to know everything about her surroundings. She ventured through dangerous alleys, walked through unknown territories, leapt off tall buildings, always landing on her feet of course. Then one fine day, when this cat’s mistress was leaving the house, she followed her mistress. The cat was struck with wonder at this big, fast thing her mistress got into. It was a car. The cat tried to keep up with her mistress’ car. After a couple of hundred meters, she got hit by another car and died. The end.
It’s an old saying, “Curiosity killed the cat”. The meaning of this phrase is that to be overly curious can sometimes be dangerous, even lethal. Curiosity is a great emotion, and a driving force to learn new things. We are where we are because of human curiosity and a desire to find out new stuff. But as everybody knows, too much of anything is harmful.
The same happens with the right-wing. They get so carried away in protecting our “identity” and defining our “ethics”, that they don’t realise, what’s good for the community and what isn’t. They are suspicious of science and reason, criticise the truth, and fail to embrace evolution and progress. The Right is quite frankly killing itself with its narrow mindedness, and the inability to adapt to newer and better circumstances.
It fails to see how this can prove dangerous to itself and society as a whole. No society which has failed to adapt has survived consistently and without conflict. Change is constant, and one needs to embrace it. Hence the new and modern proverb, “Conservatism killed the cat.”
Conservatives use “traditional” beliefs to justify their actions today. They make use of their history, manipulate it and use it in a context they deem correct. Most of the right does not want to tolerate, does not want to accept the existence of underprivileged and minority communities, the presence of sexualities other than what is said in the holy books.
The Right lives in denial, and even if they show acceptance, it’s only to criticise and not welcome.
The fuel on which the Right runs is hate. Hate towards minorities, the underprivileged, the socially “unacceptable” communities, is the fuel of the Right political agenda. Instead of recognition of people outside of their narrow and orthodox minds, they reject them.
They deny that Blacks, Asians, Jews, Queers etc. are fellow humans. They believe they are superior just because they are taught that they are superior. They don’t want to recognize because they are scared it might damage their “superior” identity.
The poison of Right-wing thinking runs deep in our social roots. It can be seen everywhere in the form of propaganda, jokes, memes, videos, tweets, which are splattered all over the internet. The Right defines itself as “declining” and politically “disproportionate” but I don’t think even they realize how deep the orthodox thinking goes, how much it shapes our culture today.
Still, I believe that a balance must be maintained between the Left and Right. Liberals aren’t exactly some sort of messiahs or saviours. To keep the power and influence of the Left in check, the Right needs to play its part.
The Right needs to make sure that we remember who we are as a people and what defines our ethics. Instead of hating on other communities, the Right needs to teach us how to love, how to accept, and how to cherish the vastness of people in our world.
Daniella
November 2021
