What Does It Mean To Be Conservative? Or To Conserve?

The philosopher Michael Oakeshott wrote,

“To be conservative … is to be disposed to make certain kinds of choices…. it is a disposition appropriate to a man who is acutely aware of having something to lose which he has learned to care for; a man in some degree rich in opportunities for enjoyment, but not so rich that he can afford to be indifferent to loss.”

“To be conservative … is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible. … to acquire and to enlarge will be less important than to keep, to cultivate and to enjoy; the grief of loss will be more acute than the excitement of novelty or promise.”

It is out of precisely such a conservative disposition that I oppose the action of the Warren County Board of Supervisors to establish a county library board.

To see why it is reasonable to call my opposition conservative, let me present the rival cases for and against the immediate establishing of the new board:

The four supervisors’ case:

1. The county contributes $1.24 million to the library’s annual budget but holds only one seat on its governing board.
2. To carry out their fiduciary duty to the citizens, the supervisors need greater oversight of the library.
3. 95% of the counties in Virginia use library boards to exercise such oversight.
4. There are plausible indicators that a Warren County Library Board could enter competitive procurement of a new library contractor to provide equivalent services at less cost.
5. Therefore, the county needs a library board to ensure appropriate oversight and possibly to achieve more efficient expenditure of tax payer money.

The case of the opposition:

1. Warren County, which has existed for nearly 200 years, has never had a library board.
2. The current method of providing a community library is the result of long-standing custom, sometimes formalized by MOA. The custom depends on the complex cooperation of library trustees serving gratis, a paid staff of directors and librarians, and countless volunteers and other supporters. Our library would not exist without this base of substantial volunteer support that has been built over many years.
3. The current library provides excellent service (a point not disputed by the supervisors).
4. The library is now in the middle of a 30-year lease of the Samuels building; the library owns all books in the collection as well as the equipment and other moveable furnishings.
5. The creation of a new county library board creates uncertainty in the regular workings of this complex cooperation. If  the new county board selects a different contractor of services, that will require the vacation of the current building by Samuels Inc., the removal and replenishing of the collection, and the rehiring of library staff. It may also cause the loss of the library’s current base of volunteers and benefactors.
6. Such changes could result in the suspension or curtailment of the library services now provided to the county. We could lose the library that generations of citizens have given us.
7. The immediate establishment of a novel (for the county) library board creates great stress upon the library staff and volunteers, who only recently emerged from the upheavals of 2023.
8. The supervisors’ haste is inconsiderate in every sense of that word. It is the opposite of conservative.

As Ms. Cullers eloquently noted in her remarks on Tuesday, a truly conservative board of supervisors would be concerned above all “to keep, to cultivate, and to enjoy.” It would not proceed so recklessly to a novel arrangement that could destroy a precious public good. If only we had more supervisors who shared Ms. Cullers’ generous wisdom.

Andrew Beer
Warren County

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