Monday 14 May 2012

Lew Rockwell nails American conservatism

"The problem with American conservatism is that it hates the left more than the state, loves the past more than liberty, feels a greater attachment to nationalism than to the idea of self-determination, believes brute force is the answer to all social problems, and thinks it is better to impose truth rather than risk losing one soul to heresy. It has never understood the idea of freedom as a self-ordering principle of society. It has never seen the state as the enemy of what conservatives purport to favor. It has always looked to presidential power as the saving grace of what is right and true about America."

Lew Rockwell, quoted in this article by Laurence M. Vance

Hat tip: Infowars

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

In that respect, as you quoted, conservatism can be seen just as infantile, hypocritical and do-gooderist as the liberals they rail against, just two sides of the same coin.

Trooper Thompson said...

Perhaps 'just as mistaken' would be a more charitable way of putting it!

Americans are caught in a paradox. Their nation was founded on radical liberal principles, at least in part. Therefore conservatives should be liberal, certainly in the old sense of the word.

The real war which has been going on since the very beginning is that between the Jeffersonians and the Hamiltonians. Mainstream conservative and liberal both seem wholly in the Hamiltonian camp, but Ron Paul seems to be rallying the good people to Jefferson's standard, and God speed to him.

Anonymous said...

The idea of self-determination is a myth
Good Idea like World peace and the tooth fairy

Trooper Thompson said...

Anon,

No.