Conservative Journalism & Our Lifestyle

Op-Ed

Conservative journalism – and I belong right in there – is about having faith in personality rather than crowd ideology. Also, it utterly defies the idea of overblown government and its pointless liberal munificence towards the have-nots of this country, which promotes indolence and encourages freeloaders. I probably do not need to say that small government means lower spending of taxpayers’ money and brings about an individual’s freedom for being highly productive. It is awfully frustrating that the so called losers within our society tend to place the fault for their drawbacks and failures on the shoulders of the government, and what’s worse, that the government is often prepared to own up to those preposterous accusations.

Wouldn’t it be better to reconcile ourselves with the idea that we the citizens of this country are intelligent, qualified and laborious enough to take care of our own problems so that the participation of government in the solution of our everyday issues is made as restricted as possible? Why can’t we leave the government to their own devices, securing our safety from internal crime and external evil? The government guaranteeing the enforcement of law and maintenance of order on the territory of Georgia should be just about enough to let our people be as creative as possible without need of governmental dictate, instructions and assistance.

In the hands of the current Georgian government, as I have come to understand, we have enough political freedom and economic liberty to be independent from our ruling elite. So, what are we waiting for? Why can’t we make reasonable use of those two gifts of our auspiciously constructive times? Why do we continue waiting for some unlikely governmental magic to do the trick for us? It might be our socialist past that is the obstacle here, as we still have a taste of that weird socialist distribution of labor and its product, and the habitual governmental care in our veins. Getting rid of that lingering vice may well take us more time to overcome than we expected it would. And this is where conservative journalism should come in more vigorously, to tell our people, still shunning the thorny ways of modern capitalism, that we may reasonably ask our government only for the secured opportunity to continue working in peace, but that we should be fair enough to carry the responsibility for the consequences. The result of the utilized opportunity is totally on us, the people. The liberal hypocritical compassion, the cynical refusal of family values and traditions, their thoughts about condoning the idle routine and all kinds of deviation from a generally accepted healthy lifestyle might someday turn out extremely pernicious for our unsuspecting people in terms of the winsome development of this society.

We can no longer afford the kinky outbursts of pseudo-modern shticks and attitudes. It is time to stop being weird and to forget forever about governmental help, roll up our sleeves and get down to real life vicissitudes, where only an individual venture and bottom-line orientation make sense and yield a plausible ending. Here, I am tempted to make allusion to the words of one celebrated western conservative journalist: “compassion is defined not by how many people are on the government dole but by how many people no longer need governmental assistance; that political and economic freedom are inextricably intertwined; that society owes its citizens equality of opportunity but cannot guarantee them equality of outcome; that strong, wholesome family values are at the very core of a productive, prosperous, and peaceful society; that those values cannot be instilled by government.”

Normally, governments use their citizens’ money to protect those citizens from wars and natural disasters and from being hurt by delinquents. Citizens of steadily and successfully developing countries are taking care of themselves and their families without looking for the hands of their governments. This is a generic standard of living in the West which for us happens to be the epitome of good living. Shall we ever do as they do out there?

By Nugzar B. Ruhadze