Utopia
The issue of utopic philosophy has its roots all the way back in Pre-Socratic Greek philosophy when thinkers were debating the essential benefits of realism and idealism. Utopia is an ideal philosophy that holds as its main tenant that perhaps a society could become perfect and healthy by progressing toward perfection over time. This philosophy also involves Enlightenment flavors in its anti-establishment aspect and its anti-traditionalism. For Jacoby, this hope is the central nucleus of the progressive movement.
Conservatism
In contrast to the progressive movement, there is the imagery of conservatism. Instead of hoping for change, conservatism hopes for stability and tradition. The past is governor over the conservative point of view, conserving ancient values and sacred traditions, and the future is governor over the progressive movement. Together, these forces are to be held in balanced tension, says Jacoby, but instead, liberal movements have been creeping toward conservative values.
False Liberalism
When liberal-sounding language is applied to Conservative political interests, Jacoby sees that as a false Liberalism. Instead of truly striving for progress and perfection, the modern Democratic party in America has tended to align itself to big business interests through political alliances and media alliances. This infection has been so thorough that Jacoby argues that most of what seems Liberal in flavor (at least in America) is not truly progressive at all. They are more like sports teams playing essentially the same game, rather than philosophical counterparts.
Apocalypse and demise
Jacoby sees the threat of this imbalance as an apocalyptic force with horrible outcomes. If no one is standing up to the conservation of imbalanced economic systems, and if no one is standing up to the conservation of chronic injustice and imbalance, then the lower class in America will become so disenfranchised that they will eventually have no choice but revolution, and then America will be weakened by civil war. That is the threat at the end of this dynamic shift according to Jacoby's philosophy.
