What especially unites our conservatives and stalinists is the idea that the future can be made up as we go along.  Roots and traditions, the past generally, is supposed to be no more than a limiting factor, something that just gets in the way.  It must be jettisoned, like the spent stage of a rocket. True freedom consists in self-definition.

Of course, self-definition can get tricky as soon as it is asked if the self doing the defining must itself be defined.  And if so, just how such a convoluted self-definition of self (and, indeed, definition of definition) might work.

More, the vulgar understanding of self-definition — namely, the idea that people should have the information and freedom to decide their lives for themselves — must of course be avoided at all cost. Self-definition like this could get in the way of the proper direction of things.

Luckily, all such complication can be avoided. For self-definition can readily be supplied to the masses by the apparatchiks in the news and entertainment and education departments.  No need for either the masses by the apparatchiks to give the matter much thought. You are what you eat!

Feel like a snack?

Congratulations!  You are a conservative!