Dear conservatives-of-age:
I cannot help but think that the disappointment I hold for my nation’s current rush to the left in both politics and culture is but compounded in you. Your years of public service constitute a hard-fought legacy, and as you look to pass that down you no doubt see few, if any, open or even interested hands. The harvest, as it were, is ripe, but the workers are few.
All is not as it seems. There are among my generation of mostly disillusioned, disinterested and simply silly 20-somethings a few that keep faith in conservatism. It is not a popular opinion. If we made it through our respective institutions of higher leaning, it was by the skin of our teeth, and most likely by spending less time than we would have liked studying the truly important things and more time than we should have simply surviving.
But here we are – some of us in school, some of us graduated – ready to accept your baton. Here we are, we few but a happy few, still believing that our cause (that is, your cause and the cause of those before you) is, in the final analysis, unstoppable. Unstoppable because it rests upon the plinth of good sense, virtue and a correct determination of the human nature and spirit. We believe in conservatism, and lest you think us unwilling or unprepared to one day assume that mantle from you, here are but some of the ways that we think our cause plays out in day-to-day life. Here is, in short, how we put principle into practice:
- We believe that the world is governed by ideas, and where all ideas have consequences, bad ideas have especially bad consequences.
- We believe, along with Aristotle, that in order to succeed you must ask the right preliminary questions, and yet we live in a time when most people would rather question thinking than think of questions.
- We believe that only the puerile are real pacifists. To those who claim to be, we simply ask what America should have done when faced with Nazism, Communism and other forms of colossal evil. (Or, for that matter, what is the pacifist response to the rapist?) The real issue, we say, is not whether force is ever an option, but when it is the best – and even the most just – option.
- We believe that when it comes to the issue of abortion, the only question that matters is if the fetus constitutes a human being. Choice is irrelevant. If it is a child, then no choice justifies its murder; if it is not a child, then no justification is needed.
- We believe that education has more to do with learning how to read, write and think than job training. Job training is good; just do not confuse it with education.
- With gadgetry, it is usually the case that the latest version is the best version. We do not believe the same applies to human wisdom, and especially that wisdom which concerns itself with the fundamental questions of life. The important things do not become less relevant with age, and what Matthew Arnold called the “best that has been thought and said” remains sound and potent not because it is old (or new), but because it is true. They are called “Great Books” for a reason, and though they are rarely if ever read in today’s classrooms, they should be. We would rather read Cicero, Augustine, or the Founding Fathers than Foucault, Derrida, or Freud.
- We believe in absolute right and wrong. To those who contend ‘There are no absolutes,” we ask, “Absolutely?” Relativism is a silly belief with not-so-silly consequences. Yes: Some moral principles transcend time and location, epoch and culture. It will always be wrong to do some things, regardless of time and place, just as it will always be right to do some other things.
- We believe that affirmative action is but discrimination directed at the majority.
- We believe in patriotism, and that because some ideas are worth fighting for and even dying for, then so too are the countries that promulgate those ideas worth fighting for and dying for. We honor those who have done that and respect memorials saluting their courage, magnanimity and sacrifice as among our nation’s most hallowed ground.
- We believe that government, far from being the solution, is usually the problem. Increased government in Washington can but only decrease self-government, the “goodness” that de Toqueville said made this country great. Whenever possible, government should be kept local, for accountability stretches thin over distance.
This is not all that we believe, but let it stand as proof to you, conservatives-of-age, that there are a new generation of hands eagerly preparing for and awaiting the responsibility of championing your cause. We are ready, once again, to conserve the old things, the true things, the things that made our country great. And despite the seemingly prevailing winds of liberalism, we rest easier (as should you) knowing that conservatism works because it is built upon true statements about humanity – the human nature and spirit, and because of that, with each new generation, our chances are refreshed anew, for upon their hearts and in their minds we have the chance to impress the good, true and beautiful – as it relates to life, politics and culture.
So take heart: We work steadily, our eyes fixed upon principle. There is no roundabout way.
Judson W. Alphin
