Richard M. Weaver, an immanent philosopher of the 20^th century, described the foundation of any culture as something he termed its “metaphysical dream”. He defined the metaphysical dream as “an intuitive feeling about the immanent nature of reality, …the sanction to which both ideas and beliefs are ultimately referred for verification.” Furthermore, he asserted that “Without the metaphysical dream it is impossible to think of men living harmoniously over an extent of time.” The metaphysical dream is to the philosophy of a culture what axioms are to geometry and logic, givens that must be accepted before any further examination can progress. (more…)

In his work, Ideas Have Consequences, Richard Weaver mentions more than once a particular idea which he refers to as the “Whig theory of history.” This is the idea that the course of man’s journey through time has been one of constant social, ethical and technological improvement. This idea has received the illustrious christening of Progress. Essentially, the idea of Progress is the historical counterpart of scientific Darwinism. This theory carries the implication that change is valuable for its own sake, that all that has come before is outdated, archaic, and to be unreservedly discarded. According to this idea, Progress is the product of vast and inevitable social and economic forces, which no action of individuals or groups of persons can avoid. Those who attempt to slow progress, that is, to preserve beliefs or lifestyles held from time immemorial are viewed as unenlightened irritants, and are branded reactionaries. Those who subscribe to this idea of Progress believe that the civil government and societal structure are to be its faithful instruments. However, I am firmly convinced that the idea of capital ’p’ Progress is a fable, and that the goal of government and society is not to facilitate some ephemeral concept of Progress, but rather to achieve the best balance possible between opposite poles. (more…)

Today, President Bush addressed the NAACP for the first time in his presidency, narrowly avoiding becoming the first president since Warren G. Harding not to speak to the organization. At the same time the Senate was preparing to pass the extenstion for 25 years of the 1965 voting act. Among other things, this act prohibits literacy tests for voting, places voting procedures in certain states and counties, mostly in the South, under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Justice Department, and requires that these regions provide bilingual ballots to those who have trouble speaking English. The Act was set to expire next year. With Jesse Jackson looking on from a gallery, it passed last week in the House of Representatives by a vote of 390-33. After it had passed there were efforts to amend the extension to only ten years, which were also defeated by a healthy margin. (more…)

Not too long ago I read a book called The Right Nation, which by the way is an excellent read, and I highly recommend it to any conservative. At the end of said book the authors predicted a likely ‘conservative’ Republican hegemony in the near future. While I hesitate to forecast which political party will reign in the coming years, I must say that whatever the case, true conservatism will not be the reigning philosophy. Despite the fact that many more Americans consider themselves to be ‘conservative’ rather than ‘liberal’, I believe that true conservatism is little more than, as Tolkien’s elven lady Galadriel puts it, “fighting the long defeat”. I believe the reason for this is that a crucial period in our history, true American conservatism was dealt a crushing blow from which it has not, and I fear will never, recover. It was a time when the leaders of America turned their backs on what the Founding Fathers had constructed America to be. (more…)

I just wanted to let everyone know that I have just started a blog of my creative writing. It only has a few poems right now, but I plan to be working on it a good bit this summer. Please check it out and leave some comments. I’m very new to blogging, so if anyone has any suggestions or tips, I would appreciate them. Also, if ACYU could link to the blog, that would be great. However, since the material isn’t political, I don’t know if that would be feasible. At any rate, I hope you enjoy it.

The address: http://www.lukelandtroopcairn.blogspot.com

Thanks once again, Dave, for taking time to read and comment on my piece, “What’s So Great About Democracy?”  I hope to elucidate my views as fully as I can in this reply to your comments.

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Is it just me?  Am I the only one who gets leery when hearing about “spreading democracy over the world”?  This is supposed to be a ‘conservative’ mission, as put forth by our President and his advisors, but is it?

This idealistic phrase smacks strongly of utopianism, which is a fundamentally liberal outlook.  While conservatism has its own idealistic side, namely that the government will stay out of our pocketbooks as much as possible and will uphold traditional morality, it has always been the pragmatic side of the politcal spectrum.  The very word ‘conservative’ implies a pre-occupation with the way things are, not the way they should be.  Rather than pursuing some starry-eyed vision of an ideal society of equality, diversity, and tolerance, conservatives focus on finding innovative solutions to situations at hand without compromising liberty.  But with the rise of the so-called neo-conservatives, that seems to have changed.  This movement foresees a world dominated by a U.S. hegemony, overseeing the creation of many prosperous ‘democracies’, that is third world and Middle Eastern nations remade in the American image, or at least what the neo-cons think of as the American image.  The neo-conservatives’ golden opportunity to implement their radical policies came with the occurrence of the September 11th tragedy.  However, their premises are basically flawed in that the fail to realize that America’s unique system of government is not just a body of easily transferable political philosophies and procedures, but is based on centuries of Western thought, Judeo-Christian beliefs, and predominantly British cultural and political influences.  To seet to transmit our political system to nations which lack our cultural values is folly. (more…)