Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

Liberal in one dictionary sense means empowerment, often through a broad education but also by expanding one's sophistication & self-actualization. Conservative is simply the word that means comfortable & familiar, leading to a reticence towards change. Self-interest is the motivating factor of both & certainly people can be both liberal & conservative in different aspects of their life. Measuring someone's general acceptance of change determines what label best applies to them. In general, a conservative is simply a person who finds it in their best interest to maintain the status quo, usually as an entrenched winner who has more chance of their position being eroded than enhanced, while a liberal perceives change as an opportunity to improve their station in life, and is therefore willing to take more chances, which is why “change” is always a prominent word of the liberal's lexicon. The other definition of “liberal” means liberty but conservatives can believe in liberty just as fervently so we will leave that out of this particular discussion.

There may even be an evolutionary component of conservative verses liberal behavior. One could imagine a variety of narratives that could support such an argument but no need to add mystic thinking to an already self-explanatory reason: potential gain verses potential loss, and once someone is in the conservative mindset then momentum, tradition & custom are logic enough for them to refuse to consider any other alternatives. Similarly, liberal thinkers tend to go overboard in their denial of past attitudes, methods & motivations of doing things. If you do not want to be trapped by either extreme, a simple rule-of-thumb is: be conservative when things are working & liberal when they're not.