Charlie, I'd like to say that I think this period of American history we're going through really should lead us to clarify our ideological taxonomies. In the Old World, 'Liberal' is a designation often ascribed to the Right, and 'Conservative' is a term that is most accurately applied to those who are skeptical of Liberal(ism). There is …
Charlie, I'd like to say that I think this period of American history we're going through really should lead us to clarify our ideological taxonomies. In the Old World, 'Liberal' is a designation often ascribed to the Right, and 'Conservative' is a term that is most accurately applied to those who are skeptical of Liberal(ism). There is a real sense in which the Liberal spectrum is a Left-Right spectrum, and that Conservatives are not on and in general Conservatives are in an orthogonal relationship to it - and it opposition to it. Not least because Conservatives have their ideological roots in the Ancien Regime, whose yoke Liberals fought to throw off, in the late 18th century.
Conservatism has as its cardinal values order, hierarchical authority, vested authority/privilege ("private law"), vested inequality, and political authoritarianism. These are the values of the pre-Modern Patriarchate, and they lasted for millennia because they have a clear practical value. They are aristocratic values, and it's worth pointing out that these values have their own peculiar brand of egalitarianism: the espirit de corps of the brotherly band which comes together to lord it over the majority. All these values can be found in post-Revolutionary times, in a democratic age, in the forces of populism. They certainly marked the culture of the Old South.
Conservatism is Illiberal; and Conservatism is *popular.* Many people prefer its stability and easy certainties. It is my view that conservative impulses are at the root of Fascism and Fascist regimes, which are in many ways a reprise of the Ancien Regime, though thoroughly secularized and denuded of all pretense of serving any form of Providence.
So with the above what I want to emphasize, is that we need to make a clear distinction between Liberals of the Right (or just "the Right") and Conservatives. The Left and the Right are engaged in a common project, with ultimately common goals. But Conservatives do not share that project. And when they are united, by either ideological fantasy or a Cult of personality (often both), they are a direct threat to Liberal democracy. The RIGHT, again, is not the problem. It's Conservatives. And it should be especially plain, that I am not saying that religious traditionalists are alien to the Liberal project; many of the worst Conservatives are rootless, and unprincipled (even nihilist) seculars. That was what I wanted to say. Thanks for taking the time to hear me out on that.
I would agree with your general characterization here. People (and Americans in particular) have an overly simplistic understanding of the political spectrum.
There is the spectrum within liberalism (what we would refer to, in general terms as Right v Left). This spectrum is internal to liberalism in the classical sense, going back to the French Revolution (where the whole Right/Left labeling appeared).
There is the conflict between Liberal and Conservative, which is outside of the Right/Left spectrum. Until recently, Conservatism had a spotty history in the US because of our historical circumstances... and the fact that we were a "liberal" country, founded upon liberal principles.
Then there is the Elitist/Popularist axis. Which bears no necessary relationship to the liberal spectrum or the Liberal v Conservative conflict. I say no NECESSARY relationship, but there often IS a relationship.
Conservative and populist is about the worst combination there is--mostly because it looks backwards and while it pretends to popular mandate, it is invariably authoritarian in practice--that is, it uses authoritarian processes and institutions to enforce "popular" ideas and behaviors.
Yes, very good point about the populist/elitist axis, vis the Left-Right political spectrum. Basically I see populism as, like Liberalism, a post-Revolutionary phenomenon. The egalitarianism of populism also runs directly counter to the aristocratic value placed on vested *inequality.*
However - and this point I think is crucial - aristocracy also operated with a primitive instinct for equality: the formal equality that had to prevail among the warrior-class that imposed its rule on the rest of the population, in the pre-Modern Patriarchate. Always in the numerical minority, this class had to have true esprit de corps to maintain the "unit discipline" necessary to wield the monopoly of force. This group was always resistant to the rise of a "first among equals" among them to kingship, and in a feudal social order it was a consistently centrifugal political force. I think this aristocracy-ethos is one of the root-animating forces of populism in the post-Revolutionary era. Populism draws on the Jeffersonian assertion of equality among everyone in the nation, but refuses to extend that equality beyond the nation. It is anti-cosmopolitan solidarity, in other words, and forces in society which tend toward cosmopolitan values - "elites" like academic and entrepreneurial interests - are typically distrusted and can ultimately be targeted as the "enemy within." I think that this fundamentally illiberal, neo-aristocratic post-Revolutionary ethos goes to explain the Slaver-society of the Old South, and intensely nationalistic (and authoritarian) regimes in our own times.
Charlie, I'd like to say that I think this period of American history we're going through really should lead us to clarify our ideological taxonomies. In the Old World, 'Liberal' is a designation often ascribed to the Right, and 'Conservative' is a term that is most accurately applied to those who are skeptical of Liberal(ism). There is a real sense in which the Liberal spectrum is a Left-Right spectrum, and that Conservatives are not on and in general Conservatives are in an orthogonal relationship to it - and it opposition to it. Not least because Conservatives have their ideological roots in the Ancien Regime, whose yoke Liberals fought to throw off, in the late 18th century.
Conservatism has as its cardinal values order, hierarchical authority, vested authority/privilege ("private law"), vested inequality, and political authoritarianism. These are the values of the pre-Modern Patriarchate, and they lasted for millennia because they have a clear practical value. They are aristocratic values, and it's worth pointing out that these values have their own peculiar brand of egalitarianism: the espirit de corps of the brotherly band which comes together to lord it over the majority. All these values can be found in post-Revolutionary times, in a democratic age, in the forces of populism. They certainly marked the culture of the Old South.
Conservatism is Illiberal; and Conservatism is *popular.* Many people prefer its stability and easy certainties. It is my view that conservative impulses are at the root of Fascism and Fascist regimes, which are in many ways a reprise of the Ancien Regime, though thoroughly secularized and denuded of all pretense of serving any form of Providence.
So with the above what I want to emphasize, is that we need to make a clear distinction between Liberals of the Right (or just "the Right") and Conservatives. The Left and the Right are engaged in a common project, with ultimately common goals. But Conservatives do not share that project. And when they are united, by either ideological fantasy or a Cult of personality (often both), they are a direct threat to Liberal democracy. The RIGHT, again, is not the problem. It's Conservatives. And it should be especially plain, that I am not saying that religious traditionalists are alien to the Liberal project; many of the worst Conservatives are rootless, and unprincipled (even nihilist) seculars. That was what I wanted to say. Thanks for taking the time to hear me out on that.
I would agree with your general characterization here. People (and Americans in particular) have an overly simplistic understanding of the political spectrum.
There is the spectrum within liberalism (what we would refer to, in general terms as Right v Left). This spectrum is internal to liberalism in the classical sense, going back to the French Revolution (where the whole Right/Left labeling appeared).
There is the conflict between Liberal and Conservative, which is outside of the Right/Left spectrum. Until recently, Conservatism had a spotty history in the US because of our historical circumstances... and the fact that we were a "liberal" country, founded upon liberal principles.
Then there is the Elitist/Popularist axis. Which bears no necessary relationship to the liberal spectrum or the Liberal v Conservative conflict. I say no NECESSARY relationship, but there often IS a relationship.
Conservative and populist is about the worst combination there is--mostly because it looks backwards and while it pretends to popular mandate, it is invariably authoritarian in practice--that is, it uses authoritarian processes and institutions to enforce "popular" ideas and behaviors.
Yes, very good point about the populist/elitist axis, vis the Left-Right political spectrum. Basically I see populism as, like Liberalism, a post-Revolutionary phenomenon. The egalitarianism of populism also runs directly counter to the aristocratic value placed on vested *inequality.*
However - and this point I think is crucial - aristocracy also operated with a primitive instinct for equality: the formal equality that had to prevail among the warrior-class that imposed its rule on the rest of the population, in the pre-Modern Patriarchate. Always in the numerical minority, this class had to have true esprit de corps to maintain the "unit discipline" necessary to wield the monopoly of force. This group was always resistant to the rise of a "first among equals" among them to kingship, and in a feudal social order it was a consistently centrifugal political force. I think this aristocracy-ethos is one of the root-animating forces of populism in the post-Revolutionary era. Populism draws on the Jeffersonian assertion of equality among everyone in the nation, but refuses to extend that equality beyond the nation. It is anti-cosmopolitan solidarity, in other words, and forces in society which tend toward cosmopolitan values - "elites" like academic and entrepreneurial interests - are typically distrusted and can ultimately be targeted as the "enemy within." I think that this fundamentally illiberal, neo-aristocratic post-Revolutionary ethos goes to explain the Slaver-society of the Old South, and intensely nationalistic (and authoritarian) regimes in our own times.