Letter to a Conservative Nation
Letter to a Conservative Nation argues that conservatives are more selfish than liberals. What distinguishes liberal and conservative views on poverty and education? On taxes and regulation? On pollution and climate change? On the rights of women, gays and lesbians, or animals? On drugs? On war? The pattern is unmistakable. In each case, the difference is that conservatives care less about others and more about themselves than liberals do.
We all act in our own self-interest, but conservatives and liberals view self-interest differently. Liberals include other people in their self-interest calculus because they believe the fate of others is inextricably linked to their own wellbeing. Conservatives, by contrast, have a narrower conception of self-interest that excludes other people from consideration - especially those who are very different from themselves. The common term we use to describe a person who does not factor others into his or her own interests is selfish.
Letter to a Conservative Nation explains why selfishness is the organizing principle of the conservative worldview. This incendiary book demolishes the fa ade of conservative virtue and exposes the selfish core of hypocrisy and fear that lies beneath.
Conservatives live in a fantasy world where tax cuts pay for themselves, where wealth trickles down from rich to poor, where abstinence-only education prevents teen pregnancy, and where climate change is a hoax. In this book, these and dozens of other conservative delusions crumble, page after page, under an onslaught of facts and reason.
Social and technological progress are squeezing the room for selfishness out of our increasingly interconnected and interdependent world. Conservativism, Letter to a Conservative Nation argues, is therefore inherently unsustainable, and cannot form the basis of a successful society in the 21st Century.
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