Wednesday, June 05, 2013

An inheritance for all...

Burke & Sons
On one level, Robin’s is simply a more strident version of William F Buckley, Jr’s sympathetic definition: “A conservative is someone who stands athwart history, yelling Stop.” Yet while simplicity is often admirable, in the case of The Reactionary Mind it merely patronises the millions of “subordinate classes” who quite like conservatism, thank you very much. Not only that, by assembling this motley crew Robin misses how there is a lot more to Burke – and conservatism – than being dismissive of the disenfranchised. There are many admirable radical elements to the incessantly reformist Burke. In some ways, both he and Paine were right, for democracy soon became a tradition. Progressives let themselves down when they dismiss opponents so casually.

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