Familyism and local communityism are conservative, the atomisation of the society into individuums, which are only connected by the state, but not with each other, is something favoured by leftys.
You have some very strange ideas about the Left, certainly as it works in the Anglo world.
Wasn't it Thatcher who said 'There's no such thing about society' and proceeded to act as if that were true?
Left wing discussions are filled with ideas of community and interpersonal responsibility.
How much time have you spent talking to real progressives?
When conservatives speak of community, in my observation, it's always in terms of hierarchy and submission. Be it family, state, nation, party, company, military. Consumerism might undermine 'family values', disturbing the 'moral conservatives', but at the same time, it also undermines the sense of solidarity and thus the support for policy proposals based on them and politicians running with those; and undermines the running and survival of authority-challenging communities like unions, parties, consumer groups and such. While Martin is speaking thinking of a political landscape where no major party politician dared to speak like Thatcher, a German conservative doesn't even have to be a Thatcherite/Reaganite/Anglo Disease worshipper to favor such an outcome. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
