Conservatism: Authority, Liberty, Property, Religion

1. What are the two central concepts in conservative philosophy, and why are they so central?
2. Nisbet says that conservatives would emphasize the “corporate rights” of states and local communities against those who would maximize the rights of the individual. Why? What is society and its customs expected to do for the individual? How is an individual worse-off when his rights are defended against the rights of the group to which he belongs?
3. Why should it be hard for people to rise above their station? That is, why is equality of opportunity a bad thing? Why does freedom require hierarchy?
4. Nisbet says that certain customs were designed to protect the family character of property … not from the grabbing hand of the State, but “from becoming the uncertain, possibly transitory, possession of the individual alone.” How does a conservative, then, view the market system, as a whole? How is it that “the capitalist process [takes] the life out of the idea of property”?
5. Who is obliged by charity? How serious is this obligation? In that context, “what is the primary purpose of government”? I think that Nisbet must have read Centesimus Annus, 48.
6. Why is fervent devotion to religion a problem for conservatives? Why and in what way is religion valuable for conservatives?