“It is almost impossible to express the truth of conservatism in our society without seeming to justify our present capitalism. To avoid this, a careful theory is needed in which the idea of limit includes within itself a doctrine of history as the sphere for the overcoming of evil.” – George Grant
The above epigraph is a sort of maxim for me. It puts the horrible impossibility of modern conservatism into succinct, and yet powerful, terms. Mark Mitchell’s recent article “Roots, Limits, and Love” grasps the truth of the first part of what lies above while managing to entirely deny the problem raised in the second sentence. What of time? What of history? What of progress?
I know I’ve made myself a target by using that fateful word: “progress.” But humor me for just a moment. If we believe in a providential God capable of guiding the historical process (as the Bible tells us to accept that he did, at least until Jesus showed up), then how can we just want to conserve what has passed? Needn’t we accept that good has come out of the advancing of the historical process?
Listen, I’m in Mitchell’s camp. I agree with almost every single thing he says is worth conserving. I hate the corporations. I hate rampant individualism. I hate the de-emphasizing of the local community. Unfortunately, these things have passed for some reason. Can we really expect people to ride around in carriages once the car has been made affordable? Can we really expect people to avoid obesity with the abundance and availability of unhealthy foods? The fact is that although limit and locality are, in my opinion, keys to happiness, most people like the idea that they needn’t be turnip farming peasants. They like the idea that they can become the privileged elite and use their money to deny climate change. They want the ability to buy Versace sunglasses.
A real, genuine, modern conservatism cannot ignore history. It cannot afford to think that conservatism can consist only in a hearkening back to the good old days. No one will be convinced by a conservatism of stratification. No one will be convinced by a conservatism that denies people the possibility of a fabulous wealth offered by the ideas of a classical liberalism. I’m not giving up, I’ve just been mugged by reality.
This article is in response to Roots, Limits, and Love by Mark Mitchell and is part of the symposium on “What’s Wrong With Conservatism?”
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