{"id":12363,"date":"2009-09-30T19:12:13","date_gmt":"2009-09-30T19:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2009\/09\/30\/the-wrong-side-of-history-3\/"},"modified":"2009-09-30T19:12:13","modified_gmt":"2009-09-30T19:12:13","slug":"the-wrong-side-of-history-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2009\/09\/30\/the-wrong-side-of-history-3\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The Wrong Side of History’"},"content":{"rendered":"

I once heard  a prominent conservative tell an ideological opponent that he was 'on the wrong side of history.'  But surely this is a phrase that no self-aware and self-consistent conservative should use.  The phrase suggests that history is moving in a certain direction, toward various outcomes, and that this direction and these outcomes are somehow justified by the actual tendency of events. But how can the mere fact<\/em> of a certain drift justify<\/em> that drift?  For example, we are moving in the United States, and not just here, towards more and more intrusive government, more and more socialism, less and less individual liberty.  This has certainly been the trend from FDR on regardless of which party has been in power.  Would a conservative want to say that the fact of this drift justifies it?  Obviously not.<\/font><\/p>\n

'Everyone today believes that such-and-such.'  It doesn't follow  that such-and-such is true.  'Everyone now does such-and-such.'  It doesn't follow that such-and-such ought to be done.  'The direction of events is towards such-and-such.'  It doesn't follow that such-and-such is a good or valuable outcome.  In each of these cases there is a logical mistake.  One cannot validly infer truth from belief, ought<\/em> from is<\/em>, or values from facts.  <\/font><\/p>\n

One who opposes the drift toward socialism, a drift that is accelerating under President Obama, is on the wrong side of history. But that is no objection unless one assumes that history's direction is the right direction.  Now an Hegelian might believe that, one for whom all the real is rational and all the rational real.  Marxists and 'progressives' might believe it.  But no conservative who understands conservatism can believe it.<\/font><\/p>\n

As I have said more than once, if you are a conservative don't talk like a liberal.  Don't validate, by adopting, their question-begging phrases.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I once heard  a prominent conservative tell an ideological opponent that he was 'on the wrong side of history.'  But surely this is a phrase that no self-aware and self-consistent conservative should use.  The phrase suggests that history is moving in a certain direction, toward various outcomes, and that this direction and these outcomes are … Continue reading “‘The Wrong Side of History’”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservatism","category-language-matters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12363\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}