People today like to talk about living in a world of realism, a world without illusions. From my own observations and what I experience daily, I would have to say that the opposite is the case. The world is full of illusions. It is full of almost too many illusions. Illusions overlay more and more often the reality in all areas of living, in the business world, in politics, in society, in the little things as well as big.

Sometimes I get the impression that illusion has already turned into a drug threatening our existence, because it conveys the feeling that it is easy to get the future under control as long as we are boundlessly innovative and creative, as long as we have visions ad infinitum and are modern. The answer to the question, what makes a person a modern person sounds rather complicated but could possibly be summarised as such: A modern person is the opposite of a conservative person, not a die-hard, not somebody who holds on to antiquated principles and conceptions. A modern person orients himself on now and today, does not deal much in the past, simply is en vogue. In general, these prophets with a view of the world shaped by illusion fail to prove this remark.

Surely, we need to be innovative and creative. However, a prerequisite for this is that we avow our past, that we have principles and that our conceptions relate to reality. And when it comes to illusion, we should not want to do without. Illusions fire our imagination and thus they are entitled to be here and they make sense.

In my opinion, we do not need to be modern in order to master our future. We should rather be conservative in a well-understood way. For me, being modern is too elusive, too little essential, too meaningless and noncommittal.

Conservatism contains the power to control our thinking and actions, for self-reflection and for the correct limits. To be conservative allows for finding a path that is going to lead us securely through the thicket of illusions.

Strategists are conservative and thus the correct pathfinder through the thicket of illusions and I think it will be up to us to be a strict keeper of the dose of illusions we allow ourselves. Just exactly enough illusion to keep us on the right path.

Maybe thinking about the topic of illusions is exactly what is needed to make us think about the value of being conservative, instead of divulging in whether or not we need to be modern. As I mentioned before, I can do without being modern and I suggest to anyone to answer this question, if it is better to be modern or conservative, for themselves. This could be provocative. But it is a characteristic of someone conservative to challenge values.