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"The luckless American who happens to be born a conservative...either folds up his heart and withers in a corner - in remote places you sometimes find such a solitary gaunt idealist - or else he flies to Oxford or Florence or Montmarte to save his soul - or perhaps not to save it." George Santayana
"The cultural elites are drawn more and more towards identity politics, but they regard their national identity as no big deal. Those sections of the elite that are charged with
overseeing international affairs and foreign policy often share the cultural outlook of their peers in the political establishment. And since their sensibility, like the rest of the elite’s sensibility, is increasingly sympathetic to the transnational rather than the national, their ability to pursue the national interest in global affairs is hampered. Their behaviour as geopolitical actors becomes unpredictable and confused. The tragedy of half-baked humanitarian intervention in Syria serves as testimony to the mess that can be created by a diplomacy that finds it difficult to distinguish between transnational cultural rhetoric and national interests." Former Trotskyite Frank Furedi in an interesting essay just published in Spiked.
"Every exhausted civilization is waiting for its barbarians....The analogy with the civilized nations of today is so flagrant that it would be indecent to insist on it." Former Iron Guardist, Emil Cioran
"When Trump sees Putin, he doesn’t think about the Cold War – he sees a conservative champion of civilisation." Tim Stanley
"‘The night of the EU referendum, I didn’t think Brexit would win’, says Furedi, a passionate supporter of Leave. ‘But I thought that whatever the outcome it would be a good result. The campaign had activated a lot of people, and it gave a hint of a possibility that there could be an alternative.’ He was ‘particularly delighted’ to wake up to a Leave result, if ‘extremely pessimistic’ about the prospect of the vote being respected. ‘I always felt that the cultural and political elites were sufficiently strong to be able to thwart it, to downsize it or to create conditions where it would be sidetracked. So I had that in my mind. But I didn’t particularly care… The shock of it to the media and political elites in itself showed that they could no longer perpetuate the status quo. To me, it really was a bit like Hungary ’56, in a kind of minor, more muted way.’" Interview with Frank Furedi
"The cultural elites are drawn more and more towards identity politics, but they regard their national identity as no big deal. Those sections of the elite that are charged with
overseeing international affairs and foreign policy often share the cultural outlook of their peers in the political establishment. And since their sensibility, like the rest of the elite’s sensibility, is increasingly sympathetic to the transnational rather than the national, their ability to pursue the national interest in global affairs is hampered. Their behaviour as geopolitical actors becomes unpredictable and confused. The tragedy of half-baked humanitarian intervention in Syria serves as testimony to the mess that can be created by a diplomacy that finds it difficult to distinguish between transnational cultural rhetoric and national interests." Former Trotskyite Frank Furedi in an interesting essay just published in Spiked.
"Every exhausted civilization is waiting for its barbarians....The analogy with the civilized nations of today is so flagrant that it would be indecent to insist on it." Former Iron Guardist, Emil Cioran
"When Trump sees Putin, he doesn’t think about the Cold War – he sees a conservative champion of civilisation." Tim Stanley
"‘The night of the EU referendum, I didn’t think Brexit would win’, says Furedi, a passionate supporter of Leave. ‘But I thought that whatever the outcome it would be a good result. The campaign had activated a lot of people, and it gave a hint of a possibility that there could be an alternative.’ He was ‘particularly delighted’ to wake up to a Leave result, if ‘extremely pessimistic’ about the prospect of the vote being respected. ‘I always felt that the cultural and political elites were sufficiently strong to be able to thwart it, to downsize it or to create conditions where it would be sidetracked. So I had that in my mind. But I didn’t particularly care… The shock of it to the media and political elites in itself showed that they could no longer perpetuate the status quo. To me, it really was a bit like Hungary ’56, in a kind of minor, more muted way.’" Interview with Frank Furedi
It is often said we should worry about the world we are leaving to the younger generation. I am more worried about the poor world, given the younger generation who will have custody of it.
ReplyDeleteRod Liddle
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2018-07-22/comment/irelands-leo-roars-like-any-eu-bully-but-his-uk-flights-threat-is-all-hot-airspace-xwwv7gxn0
Conservatives control the house of representatives and the Senate and the presidency in the United States right now so spare the self-pity.
ReplyDeleteHow political ideologies come with weaknesses. Liberalism comes with naïveté. Conservatism comes with a responsibility – see Brexit.
How Islam Creates Sociopaths: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/17646
ReplyDelete