Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Conservatism

  • Every Generation Faces a Barbarian Threat in its Own Children

    Top o' the Stack. Related: Our Little Barbarians. Excerpts: Recently, an establishment called Nettie's House of Spaghetti in New Jersey announced they will no longer allow children under 10 to dine at their restaurant. The move caused controversy, with some respondents applauding the policy and others accusing Nettie’s staff of being “child haters.” But the…

  • Scruton on Foucault

    Although linkage does not entail endorsement, I do endorse the following from Powerline: Roger Scruton’s charming and invaluable memoir, Gentle Regrets: Thoughts from a Life, includes a chapter explaining how he first started turning in a conservative direction (he wasn’t raised one—his father was a devoted semi-socialist Labourite), when he witnessed first-hand the student revolt in…

  • No Alternative to (Classical) Liberalism

    I wrote yesterday, "There can be no peaceful coexistence in one and the same geographical area over the long term except under classical liberalism." But what is classical liberalism?  Here I found an adequate characterization: Fukuyama follows John Gray in defining liberalism in terms of four broad characteristics. It is individualist in asserting the moral primacy of the…

  • Is There a Problem with Conservative Nationalism?

    I have advocated an American conservatism that includes what I call enlightened nationalism.   But this morning's mail brought notice of an article that decouples conservatism from nationalism. Brion McClanahan writes: What is “American conservatism”? [. . .] But I know one thing that American conservatism is not: nationalism. That hasn’t stopped modern American “conservatives” for…

  • John Pepple’s Last Post and a Look Back

    I stopped by John Pepple's place this evening and found not his latest, but his last, post. A twinge of nostalgia tinged with sadness ensued. We bloggers form a loose fellowship and when one of us moves on, whether by quitting the blogosphere, or, more drastically, by quitting the sublunary, certain emotions arise.  So long,…

  • The Epoch Times

    A good source for those on our side. Here is a recent article.

  • Politics and Meaning: More on the Conservative Disadvantage

    Here again is my Substack entry "The Conservative Disadvantage."  In it I wrote, "We don't look to politics for meaning. Or rather, we do not seek any transcendent meaning in the political sphere." Thomas Beale charitably comments (edited): Just a short note on that post: your observation about meaning is  one of the most penetrating…

  • Establishment Conservatives

    ESTABLISHMENT CONSERVATIVES are singularly ill-equipped for fighting. Hobbled by their virtues, they cannot bring themselves to give as good as they get. Politics is war, but establishment conservatives don't want to believe it. Donald Trump tried to teach them, but they proved unteachable. Instead of getting with the program, they wasted time and energy undermining…

  • We Must Work with Atheists to Defeat the Left

    America is is where the West will make its last stand, or else begin to turn the tide. The rest of the Anglosphere appears lost. It is falling asleep under the soporific of 'wokeism,' the latest and most virulent form of the leftist virus. To assure victory we theists need to work with atheist conservatives.…

  • Krauthammer’s Fundamental Law Repealed

    "To understand the workings of American politics, you have to understand this fundamental law: Conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals think conservatives are evil." (Charles Krauthammer)   Cute and clever, the oft-quoted saying is a nice piece of journalese, but not quite right, although it gets at part of the truth. Krauthammer's 'law' conversationally implies…

  • The Left’s Ingratitude

    How ungrateful, and how wrong, to sneer at the very conditions of one's own existence, activity, and well-being! Nature and society, church and state, language and institutions, culture and mores, everything that one finds and was given, that one did not make, cannot make, and can improve only to a limited extent, and only with…

  • Robert Lewis Dabney on Conservatism

    It may be inferred again that the present movement for women’s rights will certainly prevail from the history of its only opponent: Northern conservatism. This is a party which never conserves anything. Its history has been that it demurs to each aggression of the progressive party, and aims to save its credit by a respectable…

  • Vito Caiati on David Brooks

    I solicited Dr Caiati's comments on David Brooks' Atlantic piece, What Happened to American Conservatism?  The lede reads: "The rich philosophical tradition I fell in love with has been reduced to Fox News and voter suppression." That is a good tip-off to the quality of the article. Here is what Vito said, and I agree:…

  • The Conservative Mind

    Innovations are presumed guilty until proven innocent. There is a defeasible presumption in favor of traditional beliefs, usages, institutions, arrangements, techniques, and whatnot, provided they work. By all means allow the defeat of the outworn and no-longer-workable: in with the new if the novel is better. But the burden of proof is on the would-be…

  • An Admiring but Critical Note on an Edmund Burke Quotation

    A quotation and a question: Men are qualified for civil liberty, in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites; in proportion as their love to [of] justice is above their rapacity; in proportion as their soundness and sobriety of understanding is above their vanity and presumption; in proportion as…