ABSTRACT
Liberals take pride in being progressive. Liberalism cannot supply the blueprint for our shared future because it violates the inverse force rule. If the inverse force rule is correct, then liberalism's unconstrained view of our future is profoundly wrongheaded. Conservatism is widely reckoned to be retrogressive. It is generally assumed that conservatives wish to return to an earlier, more idealistic era. For simplicity's sake authors distinguish between religious conservatives, traditionalists, and neoconservatives. As we shall see, their goals are related, but not identical. Among religious conservatives, the social orders found most salient are personal relationships as exemplified in the family and hierarchy as instantiated in face-to-face relationships. In accord with the assertions of their enemies, the religiously devout essentially want to go back in time. Liberal leaders perceive themselves as an updated version of the elders who once held sway among hunter-gatherers. They believe that they too deserve respect as an outcome of their superior knowledge.
