Organic Versus Contractual

Walter, if I may, there are basically two ways to view society.

One is “organic,” and the other is “contractual.”

Organic uses the human body as an analogy. We are in the final analysis dependent on each other, or as Aristotle pointed out, we are “social animals.” For example, a baby, child is dependent on elders to survive; if children do not survive, the human race stops. Russell Kirk underscored this in his writings, as did Edmund Burke, two of my all-time favorites.

The “contractual” approach simply says we can “take the money and run” – regardless of the damage we do to the overall system. It pits the individual, isolated, against the group, society. Of course, we do not want to live in an ant colony, faceless creatures.

We need balance – between individual and group. Sadly, this balance is out of whack because of the mindless greed that has overtaken us. If we want to survive, we need to restore the balance.

In short, both of us favor the “organic” approach, reality. It would be great if there were more of us of the same, similar persuasion.

This quick jot in effect defines the difference between a Libertarian (contractual) and a Conservative (organic) at their cores. We confuse the two in North America, especially in the USA. What passes for Conservatism is simply rampant Libertarianism. We can witness the damage. Paul