Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people

John Stuart Mill, philosopher of liberty and defender of reason, once proclaimed with biting candor: “Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.” In this sharp judgment he did not dismiss conservatism as a whole, but warned of its peculiar attraction to the unthinking. For conservatism, by its very nature, seeks to preserve what is; and thus those who fear reflection, who cling blindly to custom, who resist the labor of thought, often find comfort in its shelter. Mill’s words are less insult than diagnosis: that folly gravitates toward stagnation, while wisdom demands examination and change.

The origin of this saying lies in Mill’s fierce defense of progress and liberty in nineteenth-century England. He lived in an age when reforms—expansion of suffrage, women’s rights, the abolition of slavery—were resisted fiercely by those who called themselves conservatives. Mill, who fought for rational debate and the advancement of human dignity, grew weary of those whose opposition was not grounded in reasoned argument but in reflexive fear. His words emerged as a challenge: if conservatism is to be honorable, it must be grounded in intellect, not in ignorance.

History offers testimony to his observation. In the struggle against abolition, many clung to slavery not through reasoned philosophy but through blind prejudice, defending an institution of cruelty with shallow slogans. The thinkers of their time—William Wilberforce in England, Frederick Douglass in America—stood against this ignorance with reason and moral fire. Yet masses of the unthinking resisted, not because they had considered deeply, but because it was easier to preserve the old ways than to confront uncomfortable truths.

So too in the battles for women’s suffrage, where opponents warned of calamity should women vote, not from evidence, but from custom and fear. Their arguments, hollow and repetitive, reveal what Mill meant: that those who do not think, who cannot reason, cling to conservatism as a crutch. Yet this does not condemn all conservatives; Mill acknowledged that conservatism can, in the hands of the wise, guard against reckless haste. His scorn was for the lazy mind, which hides behind tradition rather than seeking truth.

Therefore, O seekers of wisdom, take Mill’s words as both warning and summons. Ignorance and stagnation are ever allied. The wise must guard against mistaking habit for truth, or fear for reason. Conservatism, like liberalism, may serve the world if guided by thought; but when it becomes the refuge of folly, it enslaves rather than preserves. For the true enemy of liberty is not conservatism nor progressivism, but stupidity—the refusal to think, which makes a prison of the human soul.