Conservatism: it must be about conserving that which is proven wise and virtuous

Bob Belvedere at Camp of the Saints asks, what do conservatives want to conserve?

A conservative does not seek to preserve institutions just because they have been in existence for a certain amount of time. Rather, the conservative seeks to preserve the hard-won wisdom of the ages, the Permanent Things, which has been paid for in much blood, toil, tears, and sweat.

If a long-in-existence institution is the product of fantastical thinking, if it was conceived in the throes of the passion of the rejection of The Permanent Things, if it’s continued existence is corrosive to the maintenance of a free and morally ordered society, then the conservative must seek it’s demise.

Conservatives, to be truly worthy of the name, must be about conserving that which is proven wise and virtuous, that transcend the day-to-day.