Neo-Liberalism vs Old Conservatism

I work with someone who is basically liberal (liberal in the way she wants others to live and liberal in how she votes but more conservative in how she lives herself, which is common). I once told her that giving money to a panhandler is a 90% chance or more that you're handing your money directly into the local drug trade, and if you're lucky, they'll just buy alcohol with it. She said that she still does it because at least she feels like she tried to help.

She FEELS like she tried to help. And that's when I realized for myself what I've been reading for years. That liberals place more value on how they feel and on the theoretical virtue of their actions than they do on actual RESULTS of their actions.

Neo-Liberals formulate their worldview and base their actions on how they WANT the world to be, on how they FEEL like people should behave and on how they HOPE things will be. Conservatives formulate their worldview and base their actions on how the world ACTUALLY SEEMS TO BE, on how people ACTUALLY SEEM TO BEHAVE and on how they PREDICT THINGS WILL TURN OUT based on evidence.

This is why conservative theories are always easier to convince people of if the person has no preconceived notions. Because Conservatism is based on Liberty and personal responsibility. Liberalism (modern neo-liberalism) is based on people we assume to be smarter than ourselves making decisions for us. They believe people are stupid and helpless and weak and need local governments and officials and chairmen and regulators and police and senators and governors and presidents and administrators and clerks and mayors and commissioners and council members and superintendents to tell us what to do and when to do it and if we step out of line, even if it's because we didn't know because the laws are made too complex for us to interpret, then we get to PAY UP, or maybe go to jail. Or maybe get sued, which process alone is too much for us to pay for even if we don't have to pay.

And we support all this crap. Sometimes we cheer it when someone else runs afoul and we say "should have followed the rules" when we ourselves don't even understand the rules. Oh, but when they rules masters come for US? Who will speak for us? Certainly not anyone who we cheered to be punished. Certainly not our neighbors who we stood cheering with in support of the rules. No one. Because we all together support the rules system, no one will stand with us when the rules system decided it's time for us to pay the master.