Comments on: Thursday: The Day That Was G.K.’s http://rjmoeller.com/2010/02/thursday-the-day-that-was-g-k-s/ In Defense of "Mere Conservatism" Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:15:44 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: A Random Stranger http://rjmoeller.com/2010/02/thursday-the-day-that-was-g-k-s/comment-page-1/#comment-1516 A Random Stranger Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:01:23 +0000 http://rjmoeller.com/?p=1674#comment-1516 I like your blog. It took me a while to come over and read it, but it's good. Thanks for letting me know about it. I like your blog. It took me a while to come over and read it, but it’s good. Thanks for letting me know about it.

]]> By: Carney http://rjmoeller.com/2010/02/thursday-the-day-that-was-g-k-s/comment-page-1/#comment-1515 Carney Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:36:07 +0000 http://rjmoeller.com/?p=1674#comment-1515 GKC was writing Heretics in 1905, and listen to how pertinent and true his writing is even in the 21st century: "Millions of mild black-coated men call themselves sane and sensible because they always catch the fashionable insanity, because they are hurried into madness after madness by the maelstrom of the world..." This is actually something that Chesterton writes about fairly often: fads (aka progressivism, aka liberalism). He writes in A Short History of England that, "tradition is truer than fashion". I am definitely not saying that conservatism is tradition while liberalism is fashion, but then again, perhaps I am. RJ, you just wrote your Economics Part 1 for your series of Mere Conservatism essays, and I believe that you clearly show the foundation and roots of conservatism when you quote Bastiat. What is at the foundation of our political tradition? Life, liberty, and property, with God as the sovereign ruler in our lives and the government there to protect us, not to prevent us from smoking in bars or to fund abortions in foreign countries. Government is there almost as a necessary evil, as a result of humanity's mistake, and as the next best thing we humans can come up with. Conservatism is steeped in tradition, but it seems that liberalism changes from one decade to the next, or at least its leaders and pundits do. Conservatives have their timeless beliefs; we are, in a sense, on a "fixed star". To us, IDEAS are important, not figures, not feelings, and certainly not a president we exalt as a god. Ideas are timeless and will stand the test of fashionable insanity. GKC was writing Heretics in 1905, and listen to how pertinent and true his writing is even in the 21st century: “Millions of mild black-coated men call themselves sane and sensible because they always catch the fashionable insanity, because they are hurried into madness after madness by the maelstrom of the world…”

This is actually something that Chesterton writes about fairly often: fads (aka progressivism, aka liberalism). He writes in A Short History of England that, “tradition is truer than fashion”.

I am definitely not saying that conservatism is tradition while liberalism is fashion, but then again, perhaps I am.

RJ, you just wrote your Economics Part 1 for your series of Mere Conservatism essays, and I believe that you clearly show the foundation and roots of conservatism when you quote Bastiat. What is at the foundation of our political tradition? Life, liberty, and property, with God as the sovereign ruler in our lives and the government there to protect us, not to prevent us from smoking in bars or to fund abortions in foreign countries. Government is there almost as a necessary evil, as a result of humanity’s mistake, and as the next best thing we humans can come up with.

Conservatism is steeped in tradition, but it seems that liberalism changes from one decade to the next, or at least its leaders and pundits do.

Conservatives have their timeless beliefs; we are, in a sense, on a “fixed star”. To us, IDEAS are important, not figures, not feelings, and certainly not a president we exalt as a god. Ideas are timeless and will stand the test of fashionable insanity.

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