|
COPYRIGHT 2008 Quadrant Magazine Company, Inc.
Shots Fired: Sam Francis on America's Culture War, by Sam Francis, edited by Peter B. Gemma; FGF Books, 2007, US$21.
THE CONTEXT of a book can matter as much as its content, and this is such a case. It's a work that invites conservatives to search their souls, and it suggests a good place to start is with the legacy of Edmund Burke.
For all his greatness, Burke bequeathed to conservatism a fatal flaw that would help make it the Stupid Party, forever undermining its own true role. The flaw was his trust in Whiggery and in the capitalism preached by his friend Adam Smith. With their creed of "creative destruction", British Whigs and capitalists were the ideological cousins of the French revolutionaries that Burke denounced. In the long run they were no less foes of the Western heritage, but were allowed to pose as defenders and extenders of that heritage. Whiggery and capitalism might both be good things in moderation, but they are tied to a modernity which is always out of control. Sam Francis observes: "As the Left always understands, and the Right never does, granting the premises of your enemy is the key to his victory; the rest is merely haggling over the consequences that the premises imply."
Burke granted the enemy premise that the modem agendas of Progress and Profit were compatible with the good stewardship of an actual human society. He thus addled the brains of conservatism as to its proper duty, which was to defy the "creative destruction" doctrine on behalf of what we might call "creative continuity".
For its patron spirit conservatism really needed a composite of Burke and, say, William Cobbett, someone willing to confront the society-wreckers at home as well as abroad. It needed a fiery conviction that the task is neither to crush the battlers nor to turn them into yuppies, but to defend the sources...
Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.
|
Bookmark this article
Print this article
Link to this article
Email this article
Digg It!
Add to del.icio.us
RSS
