Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Take that, Sean Hannity: What conservatism really is

Time magazine's 1953 review of Russell Kirk's classic work, The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot. This book should be required reading for those who would mistake some of what passes for conservatism today:
Russell Kirk* has news for most Americans: "Conservatism is something deeper than mere defense of shares and dividends, something nobler than mere dread of what is new." The American asks: "Is it? And if so, what?" The question has a special interest to a nation which is the reputed champion of a position that has almost dropped out of its own conversation.

Neither Kirk nor any other expounder of conservatism can blueprint the conservative mind or doctrine. Blueprints belong to the radicals, the Utopians, the innovators who drew the plans for new societies in the solitudes of their own minds. The history of conservative thought is found unpackaged, warm with the lives of men, glimpsed by the poets and novelists, hammered out by practical politicians who turned from immediate experience to distill the principles of experience.
Read the rest here.

at

3 comments:

  1. Lee3:37 PM

    You never did explain why Hannity would have any trouble with all this. Mind you, I'm not a fan of Mr. Hannity's. Just wondering why you single him out for opprobrium.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Martin Cothran12:49 AM

    Only because he is probably the most prominent neo-conservative voice, and Kirk was not a neo-conservative.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lee8:07 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete

You are welcome to post at this blog. You are asked, however, to refrain from the following:

1. Name-calling;
2. Questioning the motives or integrity of people you have never met just because you disagree with them;
3. Using obscenities or other expressions not appropriate or necessary to civilized discussion;
4. Taking disagreement personally;
5. Demeaning or insulting remarks.

The host will attempt to abide by the same rules and only asks that you not provide him with the temptation to do so in return by violating them.

Failure to comply with these rules can result (depending solely on the arbitrary and inscrutable will of the host) in the deletion of offending posts and suspension of posting privileges. Such measures are more likely if you post anonymously.