conservative

What’s the difference between conservative and preservative? Between conservation and preservation? Between conserve and preserve? Is there a difference?
 
Have you noticed that the words conserve and preserve both mean fruit that has been turned into jam? The value of the fruit has been conserved and preserved.
 
The words conserve and conservative have origins in the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root ser-(1) (to protect) and Latin conservare (to keep, preserve, keep intact, guard), from Latin com (with, together) + servare (to keep watch, to maintain). To conserve is to keep watch together.
 
The word conservative (tending to preserve or protect, preservative, having the power to keep whole or safe) came to English in the late 14th century. In the early 1800s, the word conservative generally meant disposed to retain and maintain what is established, opposed to innovation and change; or, negatively, opposed to progress.
 
The Online Etymological Dictionary states that “strictly speaking, conservatism is not a political system or an ideology. Instead, conservativism reasons that social institutions will always differ considerably from nation to nation, since any land’s politics must be the product of that country’s dominant religion, ancient customs, and historical experience.” Conservatives are not necessarily opposed to change or progress as long as it unfolds within such a context.
 
Perhaps this is analogous to a person wishing to maintain, sustain, and pass forward their family traditions from one generation to the next as the family itself changes and grows. Or, perhaps analogous to a Fish and Wildlife Conservation Officer who both maintains and manages the changes in the life of a continually growing forest.
 
Countries or families or forests do not exist in a vacuum. A cursory reading of any history text tells us that for one reason or another change is constant—political revolution, war, climate change, wildfires, human migration, pandemics, famine, earthquakes—the list goes on and on.
 
Questions arise: within such change, what does a conservative wish to preserve and maintain? Who decides? What values are the basis for such decisions? How conservatives agree on the values? Can there be agreement?
 
The words preserve and preservation may provide a clue. The words have the same origins in PIE ser-(1)(to protect) as conserve; however, the ‘pre’ means to protect something before hand—to proactive, so to speak. Preserve that fruit before it goes bad!
 
Dare I say that this may imply participating in a process of change rather than resisting it so that what is of value can, in fact, be preserved and carried forward.
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
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