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→Conservative metaphors
* Someone who is morally weak cannot stand up to evil and so will eventually commit evil.
* Therefore, moral weakness is a form of immorality.
* Lack of self-control (the lack of self-discipline) and self-indulgence (the refusal to engage in self-denial) are therefore forms of immorality.
Other forms of moral used by conservatives:
'''Moral Bounds''': Here action is seen as motion, and moral action is seen as motion within prescribed bounds or on a prescribed path. Immoral people are those who transgress the bounds or deviate from the path. The logic of this metaphor is that transgressors and deviants are dangerous to society not only because they can lead others astray, but because they create new paths to traverse, thus blurring the clear, prescribed, socially accepted boundaries between right and wrong.
'''Moral Authority''': Moral authority is patterned metaphorically on parental authority, where parents have a young child's best interests at heart and know what is best for the child.
'''Morality is Obedience''': Just as the good child obeys his parents, a moral person obeys a moral authority, which can be a text (like the Bible or the Koran), an institution, or a leader.
'''Moral Essence''': Just as physical objects are made of substances, which determines how they will behave (e.g., wood burns, stone doesn't), so people are seen as have an essence -- a "character" -- which determines how they will behave morally. Good essential properties are called virtues; bad essential properties are called vices. When we speak of someone as having a "heart of gold" or as "not having a mean bone in his body" or as "being rotten to the core," we are using the metaphor of Moral Essence. The word "character" often refers to Moral Strength seen as an essential moral property. To "see what someone is made of" is to test his character, to
determine his Moral Essence. The logic of Moral Essence is this: Your behavior reveals your essence, which in turn predicts your future behavior.
'''Moral Health''': Immorality is seen as a disease that can spread. Just as you have a duty to protect your children from disease by keeping them away from diseased people, so you have a duty to protect your children from the contagion of immorality by keeping them away from immoral people. This is part of the logic behind urban flight, segregated neighborhoods and strong sentencing guidelines for nonviolent offenders. Since purity and cleanliness promote health, morality is seen as being pure and clean.
'''Moral Wholeness''': We speak of a "degenerate" person, the "erosion" of moral standards, the "crumbling" of moral values, the "rupture" or "tearing" of the moral fabric. Wholeness entails an overall unity of form that contributes to strength. Thus moral wholeness is attendant on moral strength.
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