Politics & Power Quote by George Haven Putnam

Putnam flips the insult and makes “conservative” sound less like a virtue than a nervous tic. The sentence is built as a courtroom cross-examination: you brand us “revolutionary” and “destructive,” but what exactly are you defending besides habit? By posing conservatism as “adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried,” he isn’t defining a philosophy so much as shrinking it to a reflex - a preference for proven machinery even when the machinery is failing the people running it.

The intent is strategic. Putnam, a soldier by profession, knows the cultural authority of order, discipline, and continuity. He borrows that authority to argue that real recklessness can hide inside “eminently conservative” posturing. His question implies that the conservative position often wins by default: it gets to call itself responsible while forcing opponents to carry the stigma of chaos. Putnam’s move is to reverse the burden of proof. If you oppose change simply because it’s new, you’re not being prudent; you’re being incurious.

The subtext is a jab at rhetorical asymmetry in politics: “destructive” is an easy charge, because reform necessarily disturbs existing arrangements. Putnam reminds readers that every “old and tried” system was once “new and untried” too - legitimacy is frequently just survivorship plus comfort. In the late 19th and early 20th century, with industrial capitalism remaking work, cities, and inequality, that distinction mattered. Conservatism could mean stability; it could also mean protecting entrenched interests with a halo of tradition. Putnam’s question doesn’t ask permission to change. It asks why refusing to change should be treated as the mature choice.