In the Agora: And a Few More Things

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July 29, 2007

And a Few More Things

Regular reader philosopher finds Andrew Sullivan's and Rod Dreher's lists of things they no longer believe more compelling than Joe Carter's, which I linked to below. For what it's worth, I find Daniel Larison's list the most compelling, as it seems he and I have had similar naivety-shattering journeys. To wit:

On conservatism and American politics:
1) First among these was my assumption that most Americans who called themselves conservatives distrusted government and feared the expansion of government power. That was the conservatism I had been raised with, and it seemed to be the one that had a visceral appeal to a large number of conservatives during the '90s. Obviously, this conservatism is held by only a fairly small number of conservatives, and, as wiser people than I have known all along, the popularity of a "roll back the state" message is extremely superficial.
2) One of my other false beliefs connected to this was that most conservatives were conservatives first and GOP partisans second (if at all), and would therefore be just as outraged by GOP government activism and overreach as they had been in the 1990s. This was the worst sort of naivety on my part, and it was repeatedly shown to be false. To point out that some of the same people who wanted to attack Iraq opposed aggression against Yugoslavia was almost useless--partisans are well aware that they use a double standard, and they have no problem with it. Again, I mistook the attitudes of conservatives whom I knew for what was true for "conservatives" generally--this was just sloppy analysis.
3) Another false belief that I held was that most conservatives were conservative as a result of custom and reflection, with rather more emphasis on the latter, and to discover that most conservatives were such on the basis of little more than visceral dislike of various hate figures was something that took some time to accept.
4) Another mistaken assumption was that most conservatives were likewise wary of government power overseas and that they would therefore be extremely skeptical of foreign adventurism. It seemed obvious to me that if I and others who took this view simply pointed out the bizarre Wilsonian pretensions of the administration, that would cure them of their enthusiasms....

As for other changes, I'd have to say my belief in original sin has gotten much stronger in recent years. We're all idiots, and it would be good if none of us got too powerful.

Posted by David Darlington at July 29, 2007 08:03 PM

Comments

Hey David-- you probably (and quite reasonably, since I'll bet you already follow his blog) didn't bother clicking through the Sullivan link I pasted. But actually it's his post on the Larison that I was linking to!

Posted by: philosopher at July 29, 2007 08:40 PM | permalink

What a relief it is to be reading these posts. It's been a long time coming.

Posted by: JohnS at July 30, 2007 07:12 AM | permalink

I'm particularly struck by Larison's fourth point. I remember back in the days before the war, the paleo-cons were apoplectic about the spread of neo-Wilsonianism through the conservative movement. While that may have been the case for many conservatives (i.e., that they were mesmerized by the so-called neo-cons' vision of American Greatness), I think it was under-appreciated that many other conservatives, myself included, signed on to the invasion only on the grounds that it served our national security. I do not think the warnings alluded to in point #4 reached us, as they seemed beside the point.

I also think that many of those in this latter group, once the lack of WMD became apparent, fell back on the Wilsonian justifications for war, at which point the paleo-cons had retreated (or had already been dismissed), and so could no longer serve as a corrective voice.

Posted by: Zach Wendling at July 30, 2007 09:40 PM | permalink

This just shows you how much we need God in our lives and how much we need to pray to God for help for both ourselves and our nation. I found a website that talks about some of this at http://www.werepent.org I think every Christian should check it out.

Posted by: aj at August 2, 2007 12:46 PM | permalink

July 29, 2007

And a Few More Things

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