The difference between conservatives and progressives.
November 1, 2008
An amazing quote from the late Rabbi Sherwin Wine, one of the founders of the Humanistic Judaism movement.
“There are two visions of America.
One precedes our founding fathers and finds its roots in the harshness of our puritan past. It is very suspicious of freedom, uncomfortable with diversity, hostile to science, unfriendly to reason, contemptuous of personal autonomy. It sees America as a religious nation. It views patriotism as allegiance to God. It secretly adores coercion and conformity. Despite our constitution, despite the legacy of the Enlightenment, it appeals to millions of Americans and threatens our freedom.
The other vision finds its roots in the spirit of our founding revolution and in the leaders of this nation who embraced the age of reason. It loves freedom, encourages diversity, embraces science and affirms the dignity and rights of every individual. It sees America as a moral nation, neither completely religious nor completely secular. It defines patriotism as love of country and of the people who make it strong. It defends all citizens against unjust coercion and irrational conformity.
This second vision is our vision. It is the vision of a free society. We must be bold enough to proclaim it and strong enough to defend it against all its enemies.”
- Rabbi Sherwin Wine
I think that pretty much sums it up.
Obama/Biden 2008.
November 9, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Pamela,
First off, I am a new Twitterer and somehow found you right off, and am enjoying following your updates and reading your blog.
I’m into technology as it relates to education so perhaps that’s why I took an interest in you/your posts.
I’m also a Political Scientist and Historian (stuff I teach) and so I thought I’d comment on this thoughtful post/quote from Rabbi Sherwin Wine.
I find the issue of the roots of Progressivism to be more complex than does Rabbi Wine. There are more perspectives than just those he outlines. Certainly the immigration of large numbers of people in the 19th and 20th centuries (who don’t share the perspectives of either the Puritans who came in the 17th century or the Founding Fathers who were heavily influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment) complicate an understanding of the American intellecutal milieu…
Perhaps the best place for American Progressives to look for root values still is the founding documents – heavily influenced by Locke, Paine, Rousseau, and produced by Jefferson, Madison, etc. – but we have to add to that the important language of the civil rights movement and the experiential knowledge of non-white immigrants.
Anyway, thanks for this interesting post and looking forward to following/followed on Twitter.
November 9, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Hi Mike,
Thanks for your comment! I agree that it’s probably more complex, but I think Rabbi Wine does a really nice job of distilling the two concepts into a simple, elegant statement. And, as a progressive, I find his words inspiring. He touches on what you say about our founding fathers when he says “in the spirit of our founding revolution and in the leaders of this nation who embraced the age of reason…”
I also like George Lakoff’s values model which talks about the “strict father” as the values model for conservatives vs. the “nuturant parent” model that progressive values are modeled after provides a great explanation as to these philosophical differences.