8/1/2018 Conservatism's Hidden History :: Daniel Pipes

Conservatism's Hidden History

by Daniel Pipes
Philadelphia Inquirer (jpg)
July 31, 2018
http://www.danielpipes.org/18452/conservativism-hidden-history

What is conservatism?

Before reading an article with this title by Ofir Haivry and Yoram Hazony in a recent issue of American
Affairs, I would have replied individual liberty, small government, and a robust foreign policy. Their article
taught me a completely different and much deeper understanding.

With clarity and brilliance, Haivry and Hazony reveal a little-

known intellectual history of English conservatism going back to
the fifteenth century and Sir John Fortescue's In Praise of the Laws
of England (c. 1470), followed by such outstanding thinkers as
John Selden, Jonathan Swift, and Edmund Burke.

They advocated an outlook that respects tradition while

intelligently adapting it to new circumstances; Haivry and Hazony
call this historical empiricism. Conservatives esteem what
preceding generations have worked out – especially, the English
Constitution and the Hebrew Bible. They see England's unique
development of freedom as the happy result of such singular
breakthroughs as the Magna Carta (1215) and the Petition of Right
(1628).

Caution is the conservatives' by-word: Look to the nation and

religion for guidance; make sure to limit executive power and
maintain individual freedoms. Judges – respect the original intent
of documents. Politicians – if marriage has everywhere and always
meant a union of man and woman, be very careful about
fundamentally changing it. Governments – ensure that immigrants
assimilate to the host culture.

Liberals, in contrast, are rationalists because they believe in each

person's unlimited capacity to figure things out on his own.
A title page of Fortescue's "In Praise of the
Tradition hardly counts: "Rather than arguing from the historical Laws of England" (c. 1470).
experience of nations, they set out by asserting general axioms that
they believe to be true of all human beings, and that they suppose will be accepted by all human beings
examining them with their native rational abilities."

Liberalism is two centuries younger than conservatism, dating back

to John Locke's Second Treatise of Government (1689), in which
Locke formulated supposed laws of nature which he blithely
assumed apply to every human. Haivry and Hazony explain:
"Liberalism is a political doctrine based on the assumption that
reason is everywhere the same and accessible, in principle, to all
individuals; and that one need only consult reason to arrive at the
one form of government that is everywhere the best, for all
mankind."

The danger here, of course, is that individual humans have some

strange and blinkered ideas. Liberalism enfranchises ideas far
removed from the sobriety of the English Constitution, starting
with the French Revolution and ending with the totalitarianisms of

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our time. Proclaimed universal laws can justify any sins once
unmoored from accumulated wisdom and experience.

Conservatives and liberals have battled for three hundred years in

the United Kingdom. Conservatives can point to the monarchy and
the common law still standing as their accomplishments; liberals
can point to uncontrolled immigration and at least 85 functioning
Sharia courts.

A similar American debate exists. Conservatives included

Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, and John Adams,
liberals included Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and Andrew
Jackson. Each side had its triumphs. The Declaration of
Independence (1776) is a liberal document that holds various
"truths to be self-evident," namely "that all men are created equal
[and] that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights." The U.S. Constitution (1787) makes no
mention of universal truths; rather, it translates key features of the
English constitution for American use.

These historic differences

continue to dominate the
everyday battles of
American public life,
with liberals believing in
universal principles and A title page of Locke's "Two Treatises of
conservatives celebrating Government" (1689).
national culture. Thus,
liberals want to transfer
power to the United
Nations, conservatives do
not. Liberals eagerly
welcome Somali
immigrants, A liberal American yard sign: "Immigrants
are a blessing, not a burden."
conservatives harbor
doubts about their
assimilation. Liberals are less religious, conservatives more so.

The two sides are evenly matched in American politics, with power regularly shifting back and forth. But in
education and culture, liberalism dominates. In schools, for example, liberals teach liberalism and
conservatives are nearly absent. This liberal hegemony means conservatives are routinely castigated as
"illiberal" and therefore morally inferior; thus did a recent Atlantic article ask, "Is American conservatism
inherently bigoted?"

It also means, as Haivry writes me, that "while hundreds of prominent universities and institutes are devoted
to examining the liberal tradition, none are dedicated to studying and developing the principles of Anglo-
American conservatism. However, a few colleagues and I are trying to restore this great tradition and we seek
support to set up an institution devoted to this goal." May their project prosper.

Mr. Pipes (DanielPipes.org, @DanielPipes) taught Western intellectual history at the University
of Chicago. © 2018 by Daniel Pipes. All rights reserved.

July 31, 2018 addenda: (1) This distinction goes far to explain why the less educated tend to be
conservatives and the more educated tend to be liberals; the former are less likely to think themselves
competent to think issues through on their own.

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8/1/2018 Conservatism's Hidden History :: Daniel Pipes

(2) One of the most striking points Haivry and Hazony make concerns the weakness of the assumptions
behind Locke's Second Treatise of Government. He

begins with a series of axioms that are without any

evident connection to what can be known from the
historical and empirical study of the state. Among
other things, Locke asserts that, (1) prior to the
establishment of government, men exist in a "state of
nature," in which (2) "all men are naturally in a state of
perfect freedom," as well as in (3) a "state of perfect
equality, where naturally there is no superiority or
jurisdiction of one over another." Moreover, (4) this
state of nature "has a law of nature to govern it"; and
(5) this law of nature is, as it happens, nothing other
than human "reason" itself, which "teaches all
mankind, who will but consult it." It is this universal
reason, the same among all mankind, that leads them
to (6) terminate the state of nature, "agreeing together
mutually to enter into . . . one body politic" by an act
of free consent. From these six axioms, Locke then John Locke (1632-1704).
proceeds to deduce the proper character of the political
order for all nations on earth.

Three important things should be noticed about this set of axioms. The first is that the elements
of Locke's political theory are not known from experience. ... The second thing to notice is that
there is no reason to think that any of Locke's axioms are in fact true. ... Third, Locke's theory
not only dispenses with the historical and empirical basis for the state, it also implies that such
inquiries are, if not entirely unnecessary, then of secondary importance.

Comments: (1) How shocking to realize that the founding document of liberalism was based on pure fantasy.
(2) In other words, this political philosophy had faulty premises from the very start. (3) Things did not get
better over the next 329 years.

Related Topics: Conservatives & Liberals, History

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