Re: Compassionare Conservatism

mark wrote: 

From today's /Australian/:

  In this confused spasm of irrationality which is anti-Americanism,
  there is a process which has currently settled on the necessarily
  lonely figure of George W Bush ... and the reason for this is
  simple, and much to Bush's credit: To an anti-American, he is the
  archetype, the quintessential American ... he is good-looking,
  upright, a Tetan, a man of wealth and self-assurance ... He does
  not dance effortlessly on the sacramental turf of the campus, or
  fit into the smoke-filled culture of the asement cafe, or find
  books axiomatically preferable to the saddle.  Does he read poetry
  to relax, or study philosophy as a hobby, or worship Picasso?  No.
  All this adds up to a terrible indictment.
    - Paul Johnson, /National Review/

You know civilisation is in serious trouble when this sort of writing
starts to appear.  Previously, one of the few saving graces of
whackjob right-wingers was that they didn't share the vices of
whackjob left- wingers, and generally refrained from the turgid
post-modernist prose that was the hallmark of the left.  Evidently,
this is no longer the case.

As far as I know, the _National Review_ has been known to print conservative ("right-wing") views for years. (I used to subscribe to the magazine; I let the subscription lapse because I was way behind in my reading.)

Paul Johnson is a British historian (and author). His writing has not "just start[ed] to appear."

A quote from Johnson (1984): "Nothing appeals to intellectuals more than the feeling that they represent 'the people'. Nothing, as a rule, is further from the truth."

Another quote, undated: "Almost all intellectuals profess to love humanity and to be working for its improvement and happiness. But it is the idea of humanity they love, rather than the actual individuals who compose it. They love humanity in general rather than men and women in particular. Loving humanity as an idea, they can then produce solutions as ideas. Therein lies the danger, for when people conflict with the solution as idea, they are first ignored or dismissed as unrepresentative; and then, when they continue to obstruct the idea, they are treated with growing hostility and categorized as enemies of humanity in general."

For both quotations and others:
http://www.conservativeforum.org/authquot.asp?ID=855

Just out of curiosity, what would you do regarding conservative/right-leaning publications, Mark, since you think that "civilisation is in serious trouble when this sort of writing starts to appear"?

"Tetan": Titan?

(ISTR that Bush cannot ride? Or something like that, anyway)

No idea. Often, personal details don't grab my attention. (Not always, as you may notice at times.)

Maria Conlon 

.

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