A Conservative Crusader Against Modernity

Posted on 23/02/2014 by tfpike

If you are one of the many people who seem to be suffering from the lethal combination of ignorance and a sense of
self-importance, then Question Time could very well be the programme for you. It was with great trepidation I tuned in
to Thursdays edition of the show, fully expecting the usual plethora of whiners and moaners to fully sap the soul of any
hope for the future. Indeed, the only reason I attempted such remarkable masochism, was the appearance of what
could perhaps be described as the most inuential Anglo-sphere Conservative currently living; Roger Scruton. Being a
rare combination of both an Intellectual and a Conservative, he offers an incredible wealth of philosophy to
conceptualise politics in a way that transcends the traps of Modernity and Ideology.
In an age where politics is a baron wasteland for anyone concerned with truth or wisdom, gures like Scruton become
a diamond in the rough. It takes serious courage and insight to ask on Question Time Isnt the problem, not the
yobbery of the members of parliament, but the bad judgement of the people who vote for them?. I could not help smile
at the awkward grin on the Labour MP Lizzs face, as she said controversial. God forbid a Labour MP ever accepts
an uncomfortable truth. Such criticisms of the electorate, while being entirely justied, simply arent usually levelled in a
democracy. Vote chasing populism will always triumph in modern politics. Which is why we on the genuine
Conservative right must turn to the likes of Oakeshott, Burke, Powell, Minogue, Scruton and maybe even Hayek (at a
push). For these gures give us an outline of something far more sophisticated, that is the philosophy of Conservatism.
What Scruton represents to a philosophical Conservative approach, is that modern politics is shaped by a lot more than
MPs and Politicians. While there are many things to disagree with from the revered John Maynard Keynes, he did get
one thing right: Practical men, who believe themselves free from any intellectual inuence, are usually the slaves of
some defunct economist. Okay, maybe one small correction is required, we must supplant the word economist, with
academic. For the works of Gramsci, Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Milton Friedman all inuence the direction of public
policy; and thus politics itself. We create consensuses around particular ideologies, that when they nally exhaust
themselves, are replaced by another hyper-rational theory. What can very simply be deduced, is that culture and politics
are entirely separate, but not exclusive. Those who control the institutions that dene culture itself, such as universities,
schools, churches etc. can dene the direction of a nation itself. Public policy, is usually a reection of those changes in
broader society.
This is where Conservatism has the ability to triumph. Oakeshott once argued, that Conservatism was almost too
sophisticated for politics; preferring instead to inuence the world through culture and academia. This kind of approach
is useful to anyone who seeks a revival in genuine Organic values, as opposed to the advances of one rational planner
to the next. These archaic values, that are scorned so much by Starbucks-drinking Progressives, are simply the
backbone of any healthy people. This is the message I feel gures like Scruton are attempting to force on the national
phsycie of the Anglo-sphere countries; or what we may call the West. To return to this weeks Question Time, there
was an excellent point in the debate, where Scruton blames the decline of educational standards not on one policy or
another, but a general culture of indolence. It is this broader approach, that supersedes the narrowing agendas of
Modernity. Once we understand that legislation is often the result of some ideological dogma, be that of the market or
of the state, we can begin to construct a new politics based on genuine Organic values; that mitigate the changes of
social engineers. We must wake up to the failure of the public sphere, whose primary goal for some time was to
engineer society to ideology.
If there is one thing we can take from gures like Scruton, it would be to remember that politics is much more than just
the actions of the state, or the ideologies that occupy public debate. It is in fact, a much broader thing, in which a
broader culture can dene the way we think and act. It is in this eld, that we can hope to lead the almost-holy crusade
to restore all things natural and organic, to restore our freedoms and traditions, our rights and our duties; and that force
is, and always has been, Conservatism.
Dylan Grove
This entry was posted in BUCF by tfpike. Bookmark the permalink [http://bucf.co.uk/2014/02/23/a-
conservative-crusader-against-modernity/] .
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