The Knife without a Blade That Doesn't Have a Handle

Balloon Juice has located a follow-up to the psychoanalysis of conservatism I recently mentioned. I noticed two choice quotes:

More to the point, many changes desired by right-wingers are actually in the service of returning to some previous idealized state. Given that leaders are chosen to take action, the issue is not whether a conservative leader will advocate change (rather than stagnation); any minimally successful leader will implement some changes, even if those changes are retrograde.

and

We think that American conservatives support free-market capitalism (as a peripheral rather than core conviction) out of the desire to preserve traditional values of entrepreneurial individualism, despite rather than because of increased uncertainty and risk.

In other words, conservatives will implement change to reduce uncertainty and allow increased uncertainty to maintain traditions. I don't know what the Berkeley psychologists will come up with to explain American conservative support for genetically-modified foods (a change which increases uncertainty) but I'm sure they'll come up with something.