The Negative Mind
5th May 2020
ZMan does a deep dive.
For a very long time, the radical conception of politics was the struggle between the radicals advancing society forward and reactionaries trying to block the way. In this formulation, the radicals push for reform and the reactionaries concoct an argument against it and the resulting struggle advances society forward. The result is imperfect, so the ideal solution from the radical perspective is to eliminate the reactionaries, who stand in the way of the project and the path of human destiny.
Strangely, the modern Right has also embraced this view. This was not always so, but the conservatism that evolved in the 20th century fully embraced its role as the dancing partner of radicalism. Bill Buckley made this clear when he said, “A conservative is someone who stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.” Note also the need do the yelling when others are not inclined to do any yelling.
Looking at Buckley’s legacy, National Review, we discover that the reason they’re yelling STOP is because they want to climb on board. Every time you see an article by an NR-nik labelled ‘The Conservative Case for [stupid proglodyte proposal]’ you see them with the camouflage stripped off.