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Wednesday, October 05, 2022

Liberty Wept

Conservatism, in any normal understanding of the word, depends upon a generally acknowledged and widely shared sense of legitimacy if it is to survive.

Absent the authority of legitimacy, conservatism has nothing to conserve. It floats anchorless. In so far as its habits, rituals, and formalities persist, they contract into increasingly antiquarian gestures, detached from the vital pulse of lived experience. In such situations, conservatism degenerates into a largely rhetorical exercise. It mouths the same pieties that once rallied the troops, but it does so nervously, either without conviction or with that brittle belligerence that substitutes for conviction in decadent times.

2 comments:

  1. The ideals of the founding fathers have been replaced by the modern ideals of safety and convenience. Big Sister will protect us.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "The ideals of the founding fathers have been replaced by the modern ideals of safety and convenience."

    The "ideals" (to quote the source text, "like virtue according to Falstaff, mere 'air'") are grinding wealth from they, the people. Same as it ever was. The only reason The Constitution of The United States ever was.

    Well over two centuries of dropping pianos on peoples heads. That fall straight down. Every time. That crash on the same spot. Every time. That crush the enslaved the same way. Every time.

    But now. Now! It's different. No. Really. GUARDS! That one rolled it's eye! To the piano point, with it! The result will be different! THIS time! Same as it always is.

    ReplyDelete

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