Well, that was an education. Or at least the beginning of one.
"The Permanent Things
As a result of The Conservative Mind’s success, Kirk’s name became nearly synonymous with conservatism.
But it would be unfortunate if his name were automatically dismissed by people who equate conservatism with partisan politics. Kirk is conservative, but only as long as that term is properly understood. Kirk himself would have insisted on that caveat. The term conservative, properly understood, cuts across party lines because it is deeper than political bickering and transcends conventional understandings of Left and Right. It is not surprising that many "liberals" liked The Conservative Mind and many "conservatives" disliked it. Kirk, for instance, wrote this about a review by Frank Meyer (a man of the Right): "Frank Meyer denounced the book, in the pages of the Freeman, as ‘collectivism rebaptized’ . . . [and] suspected Kirk of being a Trojan horse within the conservative camp. He was not alone. . . ."13
Kirk himself had "liberal" traits, as that term is understood by many today (though Kirk would have fiercely denied that the traits are liberal). He detested Ayn Rand and her objectivist philosophy that teaches that selfishness is a virtue, and distrusted the efficiency-obsessed economics of many capitalist economists. He denied that people have an absolute right to private property. He admired the trust-busting and early conservationist Teddy Roosevelt (listing him as one of the top ten conservatives of all time14). He endorsed environmental protection legislation and was an ardent lover of nature who planted thousands of trees during his lifetime.
Six canons, Kirk said, make a conservative:15
1. Conservatives believe there exists a transcendent moral order to which society ought to conform; as a corollary, political problems are, at bottom, religious problems.
2. Conservatives believe that society ought to change slowly, with caution and with acknowledgement
that the whole of wisdom exceeds our partial knowledge, and hence, all things contain mysteries that shouldn’t be cast aside merely because we do not understand their importance.
3. Conservatives respect tradition and the wisdom of their ancestors, even those who are dead.
4. Conservatives believe all public measures should be guided by prudence — i.e., concern for long-term consequences, not just short-term expediency.
5. Conservatives believe that different people have different callings, and do not think the differences — social, economic, educational — should be eliminated. As a corollary, conservatives believe complete equality on earth cannot be obtained, is not desirable, and ought not be attempted (save in the courts), and therefore governmental attempts to take private property from the rich to give it to the poor in an attempt to level the economic playing field is a bad idea.
6. Conservatives believe that mankind is imperfectible.
The term conservative, Kirk would have said, is a framework for analyzing all issues, regardless of the culture or era in which they arose. The framework applies to all cultures and eras because it is built around what Kirk, borrowing from T. S. Eliot, called "the permanent things": mores or norms that transcend the world’s cultures.16 A basic list of such mores or norms can be found in the appendix of C. S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man; they include the duties to help others, to take special care of family members, to be faithful to one’s spouse, to be brave. A list of the virtues is in large part a list of the permanent things: courage, moderation, prudence, justice, faith, hope, love, piety, wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, fear of the Lord, charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity. These are largely Christian terms, but the good characteristics they describe have been endorsed by most developed cultures. These permanent things are written into every culture: instilled by God in the heart, developed and tacitly passed down throughout the generations, reinforced by human law. In every culture, it is one of the most important roles of philosophy and religion to stand behind the permanent things and push them to the forefront, reminding people they exist and helping society apply them to changing conditions.
That was Kirk’s primary service to his readers and listeners. He applied the permanent things to the cultural decay of the twentieth century. The permanent things informed everything he wrote, from his criticism of modern education, to his views on urban renewal, to his appreciation for the beauty of a tree or a Scottish castle, to his disdain for abortion and pornography. He tried to pound into the American people a way of looking at things that makes sense, that makes transcendent sense. And it was that transcendent conservatism that eventually brought Kirk to Christianity."
catholiceducation.org |
