After the Story of Stuff stuff, I thought it an opportune time to recycle a little manifesto from a conservative Roman Catholic [update: Dreher is now one of the "cool people"] over at National Review. I don’t wear Birkenstocks, but I am a Burkean. And I’m a bit crunchy around the edges. Does that make Al squishy around the edges? I think not, but hopefully he will see some things he likes this time.
A Crunchy Con Manifesto
By Rod Dreher
1. We are conservatives who stand outside the conservative mainstream; therefore, we can see things that matter more clearly.
2. Modern conservatism has become too focused on money, power, and the accumulation of stuff, and insufficiently concerned with the content of our individual and social character.
3. Big business deserves as much skepticism as big government.
4. Culture is more important than politics and economics.
5. A conservatism that does not practice restraint, humility, and good stewardship—especially of the natural world—is not fundamentally conservative.
6. Small, Local, Old, and Particular are almost always better than Big, Global, New, and Abstract.
7. Beauty is more important than efficiency.
8. The relentlessness of media-driven pop culture deadens our senses to authentic truth, beauty, and wisdom.
9. We share Russell Kirk’s conviction that “the institution most essential to conserve is the family.”
10. Politics and economics won’t save us; if our culture is to be saved at all, it will be by faithfully living by the Permanent Things, conserving these ancient moral truths in the choices we make in our everyday lives.
The positions and my responses
1. We are conservatives who stand outside the conservative mainstream; therefore, we can see things that matter more clearly.
pompous ass
2. Modern conservatism has become too focused on money, power, and the accumulation of stuff, and insufficiently concerned with the content of our individual and social character.
Amen
3. Big business deserves as much skepticism as big government.
And Amen Again
4. Culture is more important than politics and economics.
as if they could be separated
5. A conservatism that does not practice restraint, humility, and good stewardship—especially of the natural world—is not fundamentally conservative.
OK, but who will enforce this good stewardship
6. Small, Local, Old, and Particular are almost always better than Big, Global, New, and Abstract.
Unless you are talking about the Kingdom of Christ
7. Beauty is more important than efficiency.
unless I am looking at my watch for the correct time
8. The relentlessness of media-driven pop culture deadens our senses to authentic truth, beauty, and wisdom.
AMEN AND AMEN
9. We share Russell Kirk’s conviction that “the institution most essential to conserve is the family.”
unless the family has two daddies or one daddy and a bunch of mommies
10. Politics and economics won’t save us; if our culture is to be saved at all, it will be by faithfully living by the Permanent Things, conserving these ancient moral truths in the choices we make in our everyday lives.
I like the use of capital letters, almost Godly
Here is the deal-ee-o. I am all for good stewardship and godly economics. What I am against is self-righteous folks who have inherited their wealthy position in the world, talking to the rest of the world as though the land upon which the self-righteous one’s house sits was never once a forest.
al sends
Nice. Thanks for this, David.
I like all of these points, especially #6. While this credo would seem to affect the way one votes, it is more of a credo for individual living. And so Al’s question on #5 seems like a good question but irrelevant to the manifesto. The individual is here being called on to enforce it in his own life.
I think #1, while perhaps coming across as pompous, is important. Just think of the Fox News culture. We decide, you shut up.
Al, as David could tell you, sometimes extended metaphors are lost on me. Could you please clarify your epilogue?
And by the way, Dreher was a Roman Catholic. He’s now one of the cool people.