tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251777016037497783.post6779291266921374589..comments2023-12-14T20:02:51.470-06:00Comments on The Heavy Anglophile Orthodox: A few remindersMatthew Franklin Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15233216128641267240noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251777016037497783.post-59230874307561258672017-12-28T08:06:36.555-06:002017-12-28T08:06:36.555-06:00Hello, Luke:
Different sections of the Right have...Hello, Luke:<br /><br />Different sections of the Right have different 'blind spots', as I've found. The neocons-neoliberals (which you are right to say are largely the same people) tend to have major blind spots when it comes to foreign policy and economics. They hate Russia and China because they don't toe the Washington Consensus line. The palaeocons have blind spots when it comes to our own domestic history; they distrust black people as subversives, and tend to romanticise the antebellum South in ways which are... let's politely say, intellectually sketchy.<br /><br />This is why I tend to point to conservative figures of the last generation like Peter Viereck or particularly George Grant, who did not buy into Russophobia even at the height of Cold War paranoia, and who also did not buy into Barry Goldwater and the mythos of the Lost South (which he rightly identified as another form of liberalism, just one which was politically <i>passé</i>).Matthew Franklin Cooperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15233216128641267240noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251777016037497783.post-58797937043745420192017-12-28T07:59:36.072-06:002017-12-28T07:59:36.072-06:00Hello, Matthew:
I believe I addressed precisely t...Hello, Matthew:<br /><br />I believe I addressed precisely this problem. Looking at the political exigencies of the moment leads one to miss the deeper cultural continuities beneath the surface. <br /><br />If you're blinded by your odium for Mao Zedong, you might miss the deeper (and non-Maoist) ethics that the Chinese countryside still holds to. Likewise, if you're blinded by hatred for Putin, you might miss the subtler shifts that have been happening in Russia's civil society (which, yes, does exist) since the Soviet Union fell.<br /><br />And if you are convinced (for reasons of electoral power politics) that black people in the United States are The Problem, you'll miss that they have historically tended to be more conservative on social issues, with good reason, than their white counterparts.<br /><br />If conservatives, and particularly those who claim the mantle of the Tories, can't take the long view, then who the hell will?Matthew Franklin Cooperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15233216128641267240noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251777016037497783.post-87725955397982963642017-12-27T17:44:31.688-06:002017-12-27T17:44:31.688-06:00I am confused about which part of the 'Right&#...I am confused about which part of the 'Right' you are addressing in this piece, Matthew. The neoliberals and neocons are effectively the same people, and they don't want to conserve anything. In any case, they are beyond reason. Is it then the Paleocons? If it is, then I can't see where you take issue with them; outlets such as Chronicles don't have the slightest interest in provoking Russia or China, they are hardly part of the Rand cult and they certainly don't bat for NATO or Tel Aviv.<br /><br />Luke DaxonLuke Daxonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06880646639541947569noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251777016037497783.post-75768558653855184292017-12-27T03:26:43.534-06:002017-12-27T03:26:43.534-06:00I hate to sound like a philistine, but does it rea...I hate to sound like a philistine, but does it really matter that much what Tories in the 19th century thought about empires that are now gone?<br /><br />The political realities of our world have changed so much and this surely needs to be reflected in the policies we advocate.Matthew Celestinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02874430461346560520noreply@blogger.com