Zizka has been questioning my identification with the Right and focusing in on bizarre elements of the Left while neglecting the problems with the Right. In the end, this is probably to some extent correct and perhaps counter-productive, but I need to clarify. I am in favor of the Western political system, which in this day means pluralistic liberal democracy. Free speech, individual rights and equal application of the law are crucial to this. Within the West there is a general consensus in this direction, no matter that the pendulum of politics may swing Right or Left. I don’t think Social Democratic Sweden is a “dystopia” nor do I believe the conservative United States is a “hell hole.” Ultimately, they are both expressions of the Western Way. I contrast this with the Islamic or Chinese civilizations-which I most certainly do not agree with on normative grounds.
Within the West there are elements that I believe are undermining support for universal values of toleration and liberty. Some of this is on the Right-but these are long-standing groups of reactionaries that historically have fought a rear-guard action, shouting “Stop” to history. On the Left though, what I call the “retro-progressives,” seem to me to be pushing a new paradigm that emphasizes group rights and an attack on the historic legacy of the West as immoral. This I find troubling. Because of the nature of the Left, many do not agree with this, and the scientists that routinely attack post-Modernists and intellectual relativists are often Leftists, even Marxists, who reject the “flight from reason.” I wish them good luck, I now identify with the “status quo Right,” so to speak. I do not wish for an ideal past as much as the liberal present.
There was a time as a hard-core libertarian when I was concerned with the mammoth-size of government. It still concerns me. But these values are tempered by greater concern with the threats to the liberal order that I see coming from within. Some right-wingers like Robertson & co. have shown their cards, citing 9-11 as retribution from god, but I believe these people are fringe elements on the Right. Additionally, though evangelicals and conservative Christians are a substantial portion of the American populace, they have never influenced the elite discourse to a great degree (most Americans want Creationism given “Equal Time,” but the elite has never seen fit to implement this). This contrasts with the Leftists, of all stripes, who dominate Academia. Their words, their ideas, eventually percolate throughout society. What is Left in one generation is often the status quo in another (though what is Left changes, 18th century “Leftists” were anti-government, pro-free trade, etc.).
A good example of this is when I listen to anti-porn activists on the Right parodying Feminist Theory obviously culled from Dworkin & McKinnon to justify their censorship. Similarly, Islamists and their ilk now use anti-Orientalist rhetoric that they steal from the Left to justify their reactionary idylls as superior to the Western Way. The debate, the process, is the crux of the issue. Conservatives have always had factions that have had reservations about the liberal order-but these were marginalized because of their lack of intellectual firepower (in the United States). Today factions of the Left have become sour on the liberal project. Perhaps numerically these are marginal as well, but their Academic writings and the force of their logic is spreading, in particular toward identity politics (racial & religious) activists-who in my experience are only cosmetically “liberal”. An example of the the spread of an elite mode of thought that may seem innocuous and perhaps is is that former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed has begn using the term “People of Faith.”
The “Left,” and the elites, make history. That is where the action & my concern is. My experience as a young man is that it is those on the Left that have labelled me as a “conservative,” despite my libertarian affiliation, so I have accepted that over time, despite my reservations and heterodoxies. So be it.
PS My lack of interest in intercine conflicts is also why I think the Paleo vs. Neocon spat is counterproductive.
PPS Also, some elements of the retro-progressive Left and especially the non-Western movements that draw succor from them sound a lot like the 19th century Romanticists in their idealism of the past and the emphasis on group collective action and consciousness delineated by race or religion. Race and religion are important realities, but the Western Way allows us to transcend these particularisms by embedding our rights within generalities. The dichotomy in “rights” movements can be illustrated by feminism, which has a liberal strain coming in from Wollstonecraft, later appealed to “genteel” southern women by emphasizing their different but equal nature. Do women want equal rights with men? I hope so. Are women a separate class that should act in their own interests, and utter phrases like “sleeping with the enemy,” well, this is what we should be moving away from. Most feminists are into equity, but the most active, the most vocal, have strong identity politics influences.
Addendum: Another Left-Right convergence that might interest readers, some members of the Intelligent Design movement have spoken of using Post-Modernism to “de-center” and “de-privilege” evolutionary theory in modern day science. Who needs a brain when you can borrow someone else’s?
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