| Very good, Michael, thanks. There actually is a side to all of this that few people are in a position to realize, and that is the contribution of the New Left to the rise of conservatism. There was an element of the New Left which was influenced by anarchist thought, and big on community control and "empowerment". It disdained technocratic liberalism and the obsession with social engineering, and thought that dignity was an important topic in politics. It was morally sensitive, and admired persons of character, like Medgar Evers, and was in awe of the faith displayed by ordinary folk in the face of persecution, and the strength they derived therefrom. Now, think: here were a bunch of earnest young people, like me, with a bias toward local control and citizen involvement, a disdain for treating welfare recipients as mere wards of the state instead of challenging them to participate in their own improvement, and a big concern with values, human decency as a guiding force in politics, and the development of character. Well, is it any surprise that some of us became conservatives? |
