Conservative means what it means - people who want to conserve rather than change, and are comfortable with how things are and, in their opinion, have always been.
One might argue it is about maintaining constants through change.
Most ideological conservatives that I know are well aware change is inevitable (and probably the most constant thing out there). What separates and divides them are what constants they seek to maintain, and some systems are categorically more damnable than others.
What happens when conservatives lose this constant, or are threatened to lose it, is when they become reactionaries or fascists respectively.