In the aftermath of yesterday’s primary elections, as I watch the Democratic Party tear itself in two, I’m reminded of a post I wrote nine years ago as this was all beginning to happen.
An excerpt:
The leftmost edge of the Left has accelerated sharply leftward in recent years. This has exerted tidal stresses on what was never a monolithic cultural bloc to begin with, and the laminae are starting to pull apart — with the result that many old-fashioned and relatively moderate liberals are beginning to see for themselves the unmistakable features of a fundamentalist and authoritarian religion beneath the contours of what they had previously imagined to be nothing more than a compassionate and humanistic political attitude. Given that many of these sorts pride themselves on their atheism, to see that they have been associated with a religion is immediately to declare apostasy.
Also:
I (and others) have argued that because of the radical skepsis at the heart of the modern Left — the legacy of the Enlightenment, in which nothing is exempt from the most withering and critical scrutiny — that there is no limiting principle, no bedrock, upon which this implacably descending ideological movement can ultimately come to rest.
I suggested that as the Left orbits closer and closer to the political singularity that attracts it, tidal forces would begin to rip it apart. I think that’s exactly what’s happening now.
The original post is here.
2 Comments
The duopoly or uniparty is losing control of its ideological wings, socialist on the left and nationalist on the right. I doubt that true socialists and nationalists are numerous but readily grant that they do have the energy and they are not boring. One reason they are not boring is that they both are oversupplied with attention-seeiking drama queens, and this may limit their potential for real political power. A great deal of the business of real politics is very boring. This is why I think the political drama queens are primarily entertainers. Political entertainers perform poorly in office.
“A great deal of the business of real politics is very boring.”
“Conservatism starts from a sentiment that all mature people can readily share: the sentiment that good things are easily destroyed, but not easily created. This is especially true of the good things that come to us as collective assets: peace, freedom, law, civility, public spirit, the security of property and family life, in all of which we depend on the cooperation of others while having no means singlehandedly to obtain it. In respect of such things, the work of destruction is quick, easy and exhilarating; the work of creation slow, laborious and dull. That is one of the lessons of the twentieth century. It is also one reason why conservatives suffer such a disadvantage when it comes to public opinion. Their position is true but boring, that of their opponents exciting but false.” – Roger Scruton