Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Conservatism

  • The Problem with Conservatism

    Here: The problem with conservatism is that it is a school of political activity based almost completely on nonconfrontation. It is quietist, scholarly, and unassuming, acting very much in the mode of the upper-class William F. Buckley and the reclusive Russell Kirk. This is not altogether a bad thing. Conservatives have always argued — with…

  • Anti-Intellectualism on the Right

    As I write, the 'infanticide is just post-natal abortion' controversy is being discussed by Charlie Sykes who is sitting in for Dennis Prager on the latter's radio show.  Sykes is obviously intelligent, but he just did something that is not uncommon for conservatives to do but is harmful to the conservative cause, namely, display an anti-intellectual attitude.  He used the…

  • On Toleration: With a Little Help from Kolakowski

    1. Toleration is the touchstone of classical liberalism, and there is no denying its value. Our doxastic predicament requires it of us. We have beliefs galore but precious little knowledge, especially as regards the large and enduring questions. Lacking knowledge, we must inquire. For that we need freedom of inquiry, and a social and political…

  • Just Say ‘No’ to Panhandlers

    What do you do when a beggar approaches you on the street? Do you give him money? I've given away food, but as a general rule it is foolish and wrong to give money to bums. Once, in downtown Phoenix, I came out of a rib joint with a box of luscious leftovers. A beggar…

  • X-Cons: Conservatism in the Gen-X Cohort

    A perceptive article by Joe Carter. Most of us Boomers dropped 'groovy' and 'far out' by the end of '60s.  You Gen-Xers ought to drop 'awesome.' 

  • Be Hard on Yourself

    The better people are hard on themselves.  The exemplify the anti-Bukowski property: they try.  They set themselves difficult tasks and strive to complete them.  They make intellectual, moral, spiritual, and physical demands of themselves.  They are alive to the discrepancy between what they are and what they ought to be. But they also know how to…

  • More on Social Security as Welfare

    In an earlier post I pointed out against Robert Samuelson that Social Security (SS), though in ways  like a welfare scheme, is not a welfare scheme.  Others are chiming in with Samuelson: Social Security is a welfare program masquerading as an insurance program. People may think of it as forced savings, but that isn't how…

  • Taxation: A Liberty Issue

    Despite their name, liberals seem uninterested or insufficiently interested in the 'real' liberties, those pertaining to property, money, and guns, as opposed to the 'ideal' liberties, those pertaining to freedom of expression. A liberal will go to any extreme when it comes to defending the right to express his precious self no matter how inane…

  • The Decline of Liberalism

    Conrad Black provides some historical perspective.  A balanced assessment as the following excerpt demonstrates: Roosevelt's social programs were left essentially unaltered for 20 years after he died, until President Lyndon Johnson cut taxes while expanding the social ambitions of the federal government with his Great Society War on Poverty, and massive job retraining efforts, coupled…

  • An Interview With Kenneth Minogue

    Read.

  • Pelosi’s Theme Song

    Not Fade Away.  The dingbat won't slink off into the sidelines.  Pretty face, though.  Too bad there's nothing behind it. The late Ted Kennedy's favorite song actually was The Impossible Dream.  Figures.  It sums up the Left so well: the pursuit by any means of impossible mirage-ideals without regard for consequences.  "To be willing to march into…

  • ‘People of Color’

    I just heard Dennis Prager use this PC expression.  I should send that boy an e-mail the gist of which would be: "If you are a conservative, don't talk like a liberal. Language matters."  It's an asinine expression like so many leftist coinages.  I won't repeat my reasons.

  • Conservative Activism, The Left’s Incomprehension, and the Genetic Fallacy (2010 Version)

    'Conservative activism' has an oxymoronic ring to it.  Political activism does not come naturally to conservatives, as I point out in The Conservative Disadvantage.   But the times they are a 'changin' and so I concluded that piece by saying that  we now need to become active. "Not in the manner of the leftist who…

  • The Conservative Disadvantage (2010 Version)

    We conservatives are at a certain disadvantage as compared to our leftist brethren. We don’t seek the meaning of our lives in the political sphere but in the private arena: in hobbies, sports, our jobs and professions, in ourselves, our families, friends, neighborhoods, communities, clubs and churches; in foot races and chess tournaments; in the…

  • The Conservative Philosopher

    As a philosopher, he loves reason.  As a conservative, he is properly skeptical of it.