Conservatism also hath its terrors. The inclination to conserve the creativities of the past can become such a compelling obsession that nothing new can ever pop into our heads. One of the tragedies of fundamentalism, religious or political or social, is that it is a joyless, argumentative, dogmatic, quarrelsome, fighting neurosis that squelches freedom and quenches creativity. The Devil of fundamentalism scowls and frowns and complains and opposes and bickers and moans and maneuvers and manipulates and schemes and plots but seems incapable of achieving the freedom to enjoy a hearty laugh. Revealed religion, we bear in mind, calls for creativity as well as conservation.
Hedonism comes to mind.
The search for new nerve endings to stimulate is an ultimately futile exercise. Chasing after the bright elusive butterfly of pleasure is a sorry summum bonum for creatures made in the image and after the likeness of the great God Almighty. Limits to appetite are found all too quickly when the creative impulse is turned inward to sensate impulses. An antidote is self-giving love. Creativity can, indeed, be stifled.