Posted on 01/24/2016 7:06:58 PM PST by plewis1250
Russell Kirk was a prolific author, essayist, lecturer, and critic best known for The Conservative Mind (1953). Kirk made conservatism intellectually respectable in the modern era and christened the conservative movement with its name. In the following speech, delivered at the Heritage Foundation in 1987, Kirk enumerates ten principles of conservatism. The list, which he did not intend to be exhaustive, emphasizes an attitude—not a “fixed doctrineâ€â€”toward tradition, private institutions, and prudence which he calls “the negation of ideology.â€
(Excerpt) Read more at heritage.org ...
Reread Kirk’s point #6.
They are a good waste of time on a grey winters day
Yes Kirk is missed
did. basically the fallen nature of man (speaking in the corporate, not individual). i get mankind as a whole, is not perfectible. i.e., via earthly, man created political systems. agree basically. He could have derived this directly from the experience of Israel under the Law in the Bible.
what do you get?
Precisely
Are you sure that Trump is as you describe or have you confused his TV persona with the man himself?
When I want to know what a man is I look at his children. Trumps children are remarkable in their own right They live and respect their father. They are productive citizens. The exact opposite of Celsea Clinton or any Kennefy
You said “speaking in the corporate, not the individual.”
I would argue that it is in the individual and THEREFORE in the corporate that we are not perfectible. Consider this quote from his point 3:
“Conservatives argue that we are unlikely, we moderns, to make any brave new discoveries in morals or politics or taste. It is perilous to weigh every passing issue on the basis of private judgment and private rationality. The individual is foolish, but the species is wise, Burke declared. In politics we do well to abide by precedent and precept and even prejudice, for the great mysterious incorporation of the human race has acquired a prescriptive wisdom far greater than any man’s petty private rationality.”
Conservatives draw from the long view of human history and thereby, in spite of our human imperfections, can draw some wisdom from experience (I would argue also from Divine revelation). We know we are not perfectible in this way. But we also can draw wisdom from what has been learned through the ages. Many of his points support that.
So your point that things will never be perfect is sound. That does not mean there are no knowable truths to affirm, to stand by, and to fight for. Otherwise all is lost and we ride the whims of the latest trendy liberal nonsense and end up in ridiculous, destructo land.
Bump
Wow. 10 principles conservatives believe and you only found one you think trump doesn’t agree with.
So you score him a 90% conservative. But that isn’t good enough for you?
Now, I reread #9 and I disagree with your opinion entirely. I think he would agree. I score him at 100%.
I have posted this multiple times. It seldom gets comments. I am encouraged...................
The only true forms of equality are equality at the Last Judgment and equality before a just court of law; all other attempts at levelling must lead, at best, to social stagnation.
Bump for a great read.
Ought to be mandatory for everyone who posts here to read this first.
Thank you—shopping Amazon as I write....
Thank you—shopping Amazon as I write....
And I guess I won’t be reading the Hollow Dark as the paperback is $2545!
Hardback is $45-—better check my library!
thanks for your points.
i think i perhaps differ from you in the area of the individual vs the corporate. it is my belief that a basic principle of conservatism (again derived from God), that each individual human being is precious. that life breathed directly from God is sacred. individuals, under God, become part of the true Body of Christ which is corporate, but headed by Jesus, it avoids corruption.
i see this corporate Body of Christ, consisting of individuals being perfected under God, acting sometimes with political power in History, as in the early Church or in the founders of colonial America.
thus, while, corporate systems, shuning God, are corrupted by corrupt individuals not under the influence of the Spirit, are doomed to act wrongly as you say, individual men and women under Christ are not doomed to imperfection and are not destined to always act imperfectly, thus corrupting all human systems in which they act. they are “progressing,” improving, perfectable in the limit as God works in them and through them. this is my reading directly from Scripture. not only is holiness to be desired for the saints in the Body, i think God insists on it for all true Christians (i.e., “go and sin no more,” “be ye holy,” etc.) my experience shows that true Christians can change, can grow under God. in fact amazing, miraculous changes are common, in my experience. and that valuable experience, under God’s tuteledge, multiplies in the Body and influences society for the good.
so, in my view, the influence of the Body (what i call conservatism) on society is what allows God to foster the institutions, values and principles that, for example, shepherded the founding of America. Governed Israel in the good times. thus, in my view, it’s God acting directly and mostly through the Body that creates the hallmarks Kirk and others are looking at as efficient cause.
in short, God is the cause, conservatism is the effect. when man opposed to God takes control, leftism is the effect and man is the cause.
this is why the human led corporate is doomed in my view. because the influence of the Body on society must ebb and flow as God works His purposes in the world. when the influence of the Body ebbs, the influence of the leftist must grow.
well, very long for a comment. i’ll give you the last word if you want. thanks to all in this thread for an interesting discussion.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.