Anthroconservatism is a new form of conservative thought, emphasizing the foundation of conservative principles in human nature. Anthroconservatives view anthropology and evolutionary psychology as particularly fruitful ways to learn about human nature. Like Aristotle, Anthroconservatives believe that human nature, revealed by empirical study, is the best guide to human purpose. Furthermore, they believe that the goal of ethics and politics should be to allow as many people as possible to live according to their natural instincts. Among the themes stressed by Anthroconservatives are: the roots of human psychology in prehistoric, hunter-gatherer societies; the natural bounds of man's sociability, including the difficulties encountered when any attempt to build a "mass society" is undertaken; the importance of kinship ties and local autonomy; the connection between human beings and the natural environment; the real, but modest, differences in male and female psychology, leading to differing roles for the sexes; and the dangers of "semantic manipulation," i.e. the use of rhetoric and deception by society's elite in order to distort the people's natural instincts and foster "artificial instincts" more in keeping with the interests of the privileged few.
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