"At a time when conservatives are rethinking their approach to economics and trade, it cannot hurt to go back to the so-called 'first conservative' for insight." - @JohnGGrove1 for @ubookman https://t.co/vQRzS9dg3q pic.twitter.com/SxnruemRRZ
— Russell Kirk Center (@KirkCenter) November 25, 2020
"Those who insist they are on the right side of history are mistaken to think they have mapped the mind of God. To appear to resist the decrees of Providence—like the forgotten people on November 8, 2016?" https://t.co/8ou1We9PhF
— Modern Age (@ModAgeJournal) August 28, 2020
Riveting conversation between @JeffOttoNelson and @CorneliusEcon on Edmund #Burke and Russell #Kirk and their type of #conservatism as well as the work of the @KirkCenter and @ubookman. Link ⬇️ https://t.co/SDgemEXKXV
— Dan Pitt (@DanJTPitt) August 5, 2020
Many thanks to @LawLiberty for publishing my review of @GregCollins111 new and, I think, definitive book on the economic thought of Edmund Burke. https://t.co/sXIEb8V4mZ
— Samuel Gregg (@DrSamuelGregg) July 28, 2020
If you are the type of conservative who is suspicious of markets and economic liberty more generally, holds business in low regard, prefers protectionist, guild, or corporatist economic arrangements, and nurse a hostility to modernity, Burke is not your man. Advocacy of the expansion of commercial liberty is a consistent thread of Burke’s thought. He believed that commercial society conferred great material, political, and moral advantages upon nations which embraced these freedoms and the limits to state power which they implied.
By the same token, if you are the type of classical liberal who cannot see beyond the lens of economic categories, is nervous about associating freedom with any conception of truth beyond the empirical, embraces hedonist ethics, or despises orthodox religion, then Burke is really not your man either. For to be an “oeconomist,” in the way that Burke’s Reflections used this word, is to detach yourself from these important realities. From Burke’s standpoint, this was to make the same mistake as the men in Paris busy pursuing dreams that would end in the guillotine and war.
The claim that the United States is now in a “post-Constitutional age,” requires even less explanation than just a few months ago. https://t.co/aJg8HeU9Ux
— Richard Reinsch (@Reinsch84) July 15, 2020
In this way, the book exemplifies a tradition of “moral realism” and resistance to abstract moral idealism. This realism requires, as one might expect, a sufficient attunement to reality in the broadest sense. That attunement takes place in the interplay between will, reason, and especially “imagination,” a word emphasized by nearly every author in the book.
“Imagination” as understood by Ryn and Babbitt, drawing on Burke, Benedetto Croce, S.T. Coleridge and others, is a pre-rational intuition of the good, the true, and the beautiful. “The imagination,” the editors explain, “always gives a unity, but it does not always give one that is real, which is to say, it is not always commensurate with the concrete, historical experience of human life.” Put simply, then, an imagination rooted in reality is what Ryn and Babbitt see as the Burkean “moral imagination,” while an imagination disconnected from reality is termed the “Romantic” or “idyllic” imagination of Rousseau.
By focusing on the imagination, the contributors emphasize the centrality of ethical character and culture which can be nourished or corrupted by experience and works of philosophy, history, theology, literature, art, and film.
"Classical conservatism is essentially communitarian, and locates individuals in structures of obligation that are not derived from their choice or consent."https://t.co/BE9z2VTPQq
— The American Conservative (@amconmag) June 12, 2020
Paul's typical conversation gambit in those days was to begin every paragraph with, "I am more conservative than you are because…" I occasionally played along, though, in truth, I never cared much for the subject, partly because it was never clear to me what people meant when they used the word conservative. Back in the 1930's and 1940's, "Conservative" had been used as a term of abuse for people who supported the status quo, generally regarded as the rule of the wealthy and powerful. It was also used occasionally as an insulting synonym for the timid or over-cautious. Bill Buckley and his friends had cobbled together a pragmatic ideology they called "fusionism"—equal parts classical liberalism and respect for order and tradition--but I have run into very few people (Donald Devine, most prominently) who believed in it.
The main problem with fusionism was that it is based on a fundamental incoherence that reflects the disparate origins and sources of American (and English) conservatism. The adjective "conservative" implies an attachment to the existing status quo and an antipathy to change. That is why one could speak, in the Brezhnev years, of the conservative hard-liners in the Kremlin. Buckley and his friends were certainly conservative in this sense, opposing, as they certainly did, both revolutionary communism and democratic socialism. Buckley declared that the mission of his magazine was to stand "athwart history yelling stop." In every generation, then, conservatives have tried to slow the pace of revolutionary change without necessarily mounting a principled opposition to the Revolution itself.
The first pillar of conservatism is liberty, or freedom. Conservatives believe that individuals possess the right to life, liberty, and property, and freedom from the restrictions of arbitrary force. They exercise these rights through the use of their natural free will. That means the ability to follow your own dreams, to do what you want to (so long as you don’t harm others) and reap the rewards (or face the penalties). Above all, it means freedom from oppression by government—and the protection of government against oppression. It means political liberty, the freedom to speak your mind on matters of public policy. It means religious liberty—to worship as you please, or not to worship at all. It also means economic liberty, the freedom to own property and to allocate your own resources in a free market.
Conservatism is based on the idea that the pursuit of virtue is the purpose of our existence and that liberty is an essential component of the pursuit of virtue. Adherence to virtue is also a necessary condition of the pursuit of freedom. In other words, freedom must be pursued for the common good, and when it is abused for the benefit of one group at the expense of others, such abuse must be checked. Still, confronted with a choice of more security or more liberty, conservatives will usually opt for more liberty.
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