tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post1209666924251984629..comments2024-02-28T14:41:47.313-07:00Comments on Flares into Darkness: Are Conservatives on the Right?ambisinistralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03836786826294202405noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-41067025549956774102008-01-16T13:22:00.000-07:002008-01-16T13:22:00.000-07:00Yes, I think this writer has it right. The left-ri...Yes, I think this writer has it right. The left-right distinction, a (leftist) product of the French Revolution, accentuated by socialist internationalist and Stalinist war against the national socialist "right", is sign of how the left thinks. The left is more focussed on war with its close cousin "fascism" than on many varieties of conservatism which many leftists don't study and don't understand.<BR/><BR/>People who call themselves conservatives are all over the map in terms of their attitudes to change and what should be conserved; but if one can generalize, a conservative is a defender of some established center(s); and yet, defense of a center entails all kinds of tactics and strategies that may or may not embrace change, even as they will inevitably engender some.<BR/><BR/>Anyway, if we are to reject the left-right distinction with the attendant slander that you can scratch the surface of every "rightist" or "conservative" and find a fascist underneath, I think we have to admit that there will always be a need to make some kind of differentiation of conservatives (defenders of norms or centers) and liberals (critics of the normal). Of course, in life, we are all a mix of the two. But at any given point in time we are going to lean and identify more one way than the other, depending on what we think is in short supply at the moment. <BR/><BR/>Our times are confusing because the critics of the normal are now the mainstream. And so conservatism, the call to renew sacred centers, has a radical forcetruepeershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16401984575637492845noreply@blogger.com