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How Roger Scruton became a conservative — 9 Comments

1. As one who has read many (by no means all; he was extremely prolific) of the brilliant Sir Roger’s books, I would especially recommend the following for a beginner: Fools, Frauds and Firebrands (leftist intellectuals), How To Be a Conservative, and the excellent novel The Disappeared. As for the many fine videos available on Youtube, I suggest his talk on aesthetics and beauty, as well as two recent conversations, one with Douglas Murray and one with Christina Hoff Sommers.

2. Here is another video of him with Jordan Peterson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtfdnwbadvk

   It showcases Scruton’s very dry English wit, which I adored.

3. Thank you for the 2003 essay link neo. A pleasure and a help it is to spend time with Roger Scruton, even (perhaps intensified) now he is gone, so to selfishly keep him to abide with us longer yet.

4. Thanks to you posters who referred to Roger Scruton’s writings and videos. He remains one of my favorite sources of info, along with Thomas Sowell.

5. “Law is constrained at every point by reality, and utopian visions have no place in it. Moreover the common law of England is proof that there is a real distinction between legitimate and illegitimate power, that power can exist without oppression, and that authority is a living force in human conduct. English law, I discovered, is the answer to Foucault.” – Scruton

   Alas, I fear that he lived to see the day when even the law (at least, as determined by some judges) has become untethered from reality.

6. Grammar will not let us alone!

   “The literature of left-wing political science is a literature of conflict, in which the main variables are those identified by Lenin: “Kto? Kogo?”—“Who? Whom?” ” – Scruton

7. ..but what a pleasure to read something so well written, as well as perceptive.

8. Very much in the same vein as Scruton’s observations.
   https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1218168453888192514.html

   The entitlement mentality fostered by socialism is incredibly dangerous because it teaches people that everything they lack was “stolen” from them, so they are justified in seeking revenge against the “thieves.”
   …
   The effect of entitlement and resentment is always most devastating for those trying to climb up from the lowest rungs of the income ladder, because various forms of cooperation are the only way to do that – getting a good job, starting a business, developing family assets.
   All of those things involve cooperating with other people, which becomes harder to do when you’re steeped in resentment, and ESPECIALLY hard when you specifically resent the people who would be most likely to hire you, become your customers, or invest in your ventures.
   As the level of compulsion increases in society, voluntary cooperation naturally decreases – another way of saying the private sector gets smaller as government increases. Cooperation is harder and riskier than demanding “entitlements” and empowering politicians to deliver them.
   The soft salesmen for socialism promise that entitlement money falls magically from the sky, or can be taken from a few ultra-rich people who will never miss it. Once people are hooked on the socialism drug, the hardliners step forward and begin confiscating middle class wealth.
   That’s why this game always ends with violent warfare.
   …

9. An interesting possibility that the “Rising Generation” may be conservatives in the making.

   https://amgreatness.com/2020/01/17/the-rising-generations-intuitive-populism/

   Thaddeus G. McCotter
   Sensing the absence of the full measure of traditional community other generations experienced, the rising generation has flocked to revitalize economically distressed and disadvantaged urban and interior suburban downtowns. They have a passion for restoring and conserving older buildings and vintage items, and have a thirst for the history behind them. Given the myriad merchandise on offer, the creativity of its marketing, and the sheer resolve and resilience of the rising generation of innovative American entrepreneurs, it impossible to ignore their inspiring and needed example.

   Further reaching for a sense of shared traditional community, the rising generation desires locally sourced products and ones made by artisans, while eschewing mass-produced products sold by chain stores and multinational corporations. The rising generation doesn’t just prize “authenticity” in its products; it also prizes it in people. And there is nowhere better to discern authenticity than in daily engagements of a traditional community, where one can talk person to person, neighbor to neighbor, eye to eye.

   Believing small is beautiful and taking advantage of the individual empowerment provided to them by the communications revolution, the vast majority of the rising generation is employing the tools of virtual community to forge stronger bonds of a new kind of traditional community. In sum, the rising generation is replete with intuitive populists.

   Yes, the majority of the rising generation would bristle at the designation. Many self-proclaimed populists would bristle at it as well, citing polls showing the rising generation’s failure to abhor socialism or even Communism. But such polling measures their attitudes toward an abstract ideology they scarcely understand and one they’ve been indoctrinated into believing is beneficial.

   He doesn’t think they will become Republicans, because of life-long indoctrination (and even some conservatives don’t think the GOP is conservative), but if / when the parties realign or a third / fourth party emerges, they might actually be closer to the kind of conservative Scruton was.

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