« Quick Picks | Main | Ammo For Your ANWR Debate »
January 04, 2006
Edmund Burke And The Modern Conservative Mind
Keith Burgess-Jackson highlights a sparkling essay by Jeffrey Hart entitled "The Burke Habit".
Hart writes on the "conservative mind", in particular the mind of the modern conservative and the ideas that mind is likely to hold. The entire essay is concise and relevant, but Hart touches on two points that are of particular interest to me.
To Hart, one of the primary antagonists of the conservative mind is the liberal idea of utopia, both "hard" (Marxist) and "soft" (Lyndon Johnson). And in addressing the conservative championing and triumph of free markets, Hart notes the danger of the market itself taking on a utopian allure--to conservatives--and thus shutting out all other ideals that don't contribute to market success.
One such value is that of Beauty, in its broad sense. Hart observes that appreciation of beauty is inherent to humans; such issues as protection of our environmental beauty and support for the arts should be natural to conservatives (Republican Theodore Roosevelt was one of our greatest conservationists), but have been ceded to the Democrats. Hart's characterization of the allure of a "utopian" market is brilliant--the bedrock idea of Burke's conservatism is the fallibility of humans, and thus the dangers of utopian thinking can tempt those on the right just as easily as the collectivists. For example, logging rare old growth timber just because it's more economically viable
is a lousy idea from my point of view. Aesthetics can and should rein in the free market, in some cases.
Hart also takes care to note that conservatives and Republicans are not necessarily the same animal. Conservatives champion free market competition; businessmen generally like to have the playing field to themselves.
This short essay packs a lot of punch: Hart also covers religion, Wilsonianism, Roe v Wade, and constitutional government. It's well worth your time.
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.thebernoullieffect.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/481
