Edmund Burke’s Concept of Order

Previous: Edmund Burke’s Anti-Ideology

Edmund Burke wrote against three schools of thought embodied by the French Revolution: the rationalism of Enlightenment philosophers, the romantic sentimentalism of Rousseau and his disciples, and utilitarianism. He knew himself to be contending against a “spirit of innovation possessed by of a recognizable general character.” The innovative spirits were: if a divine authority existed, it differs sharply in its nature from the Christian conception of an active, personal God; abstract reasoning or idyllic imagination may be employed to direct the course of social destiny; man is naturally benevolent and generous and yet corrupted by institutions; the traditions of mankind are a tangled myth from which we can ascertain little; mankind, capable of constant improvement, should have be fixed upon the future; and the aim of a reformer, moral or political, is emancipation, a sort of liberation from old creeds, oaths, and establishments, while the citizen of the future is to rejoice in the possibilities of pure liberty and self-governance. These glittering ideas were among the most powerful undercurrents of modernizational government and social theory which Burke confronted. Over the course of his long public life, he was uneasy of the unintended and unforeseeable consequences of man detached from a personal God.

Follow up: Catholics and Democrats

In response to a previous post about his book, author Mark Stricherz makes the following points about changes within the Democratic Party, discovered as he researched:

Book Review: Why the Democrats Are Blue

The widely noted problems Barack Obama faces with “white working class” voters is not simply another example of the stubborn ethnic, cultural, and religious loyalty among subsets of voters that has been present since the American founding. In the aftermath of the break-up of Roosevelt’s wildly successful New Deal coalition, Catholics voters (or, perhaps more accurately, Catholics who vote) have fled the Democratic Party. Why? Mark Stricherz’s Why the Democrats Are Blue: Secular Liberalism and the Decline of the People’s Party is an explanation of the answer hinted at by his subtitle.

From Around the Web: Worth a Look

George Weigel on Benedict and the revival of the Latin Mass. Art critic Roger Kimball on critical thinking and the Enlightenment. Two good pieces from The Atlantic: Is Google Making Us Stupid? and a consideration of the unintended consequences of good intentions – an American Murder Mystery. Jonathan V. Last previews, negatively, the new Brideshead Revisited film. For fans of the Sopranos, a definitive and I think convincing case that Tony is dead. Stephen Norwood reviews the relationship between Harvard and the Nazis. Bjorn Lomborg calls for coolheadedness in the global warming discussion. John Derbyshire explains why many conservatives don’t like science. Yuval Levin on public opinion and the debate over embryos. Kay Hymowitz explains why some teens intentionally try to get pregnant. A fascinating, and vanishing, Albanian tradition.

Edmund Burke’s Anti-Ideology

Reading Edmund Burke’s seminal work Reflections on the Revolution in France was an experience like reading Guardini or watching City of God: enthralled by content and craftsmanship, you don’t want it to end. The conservative principles of Russell Kirk are deeply rooted in Burke, the man once forgotten in the glitter of early Twentieth Century rationalist promise and discovered by Kirk as a graduate student at St. Andrews University in Scotland. Below the fold I offer the first part of an explanation as to why this Irishman who made his long parliamentary and literary career in England championing the cause of Catholics, American colonists, cautious Whig revolutionaries, parliamentarians, political parties, and the Indian subcontinent is a wise oracle for all political persuasions and the founder of modern conservative thought.

Chaput and Douthat on voting

Ross Douthat, one of the sharpest young commentators around, offers his response to Archbishop Charles Chaput’s opinion on voting for candidates completely in tune with the abortion lobby.

Quote of the Week

Religion is the lifeblood of a culture. It provides the store of symbols, stories and doctrines that enable us to communicate about our destiny. It forms, through the sacred texts and liturgies, the constant point to which the poet and the critic can return — the language alike of ordinary believers and of the poets who must confront the ever-new conditions of life in the aftermath of knowledge, of life in a fallen world.
- Roger Scruton, writing about T.S. Eliot

Non-Religious Arguments

Thursday is finally back, and he is considering supernaturalism, tradition, and the law. He raises an interesting point: why do the religious tend to fall back on religious arguments? There is nothing wrong with this, of course, but the point of argument is to inform and persuade. This often means adapting to audience, even as there is refusal to compromise on principle. How often do we fail to consider how our interactions appear? How little do we attempt empathy outside of ourselves?

The evolution of modern U.S. political parties

Ramesh Ponnuru has a good review of Why the Democrats are Blue: Secular Liberalism and the Decline of the People’s Party. Both authors believe that any consideration of the rather dramatic shift on cultural issues should not overlook the procedural changes of the McGovern Commission. Read the review here. To preview a future, more detailed post, I’ll throw out the question: is it good for our system of representative democracy to have stronger or weaker political parties, as defined by party bosses who can enforce party discipline?

The family and the criminal justice system

The breakdown of the family is our biggest domestic problem. Children need a married mother and father, and those without a solid family structure enter this world with a significant disadvantage. Heather MacDonald, an investigative journalist and reformed lawyer, has been chronicling this for some time and her new piece is worth a look. She wrote a summary here. And the New York Times has an informative article here. This breakdown affects crime and community cohesion in a big way. It is tragic that so many suffer, especially those trapped in terrorized inner city neighborhoods with little means of escape. The statistics are sobering and deeply depressing. We need leaders who will talk about the cultural crisis afflicting all segments of American society – but especially the African-American one, as less than ten percent of the population is convicted of more than half of violent crimes – openly and honestly, and who will use their stature and microphones to encourage the very foundation of a more cohesive, peaceful society.

Edmund Burke on rights and order

Jonathan Rauch has a good piece in the current issue of The Atlantic on one of my favorite writers, Edmund Burke. His summary of Burke’s political thought is below the fold.

Considering Nuclear Power

I’ve followed the career of Patrick Moore, a cofounder of Greenpeace, with interest. He led the organization for 15 years before becoming a critic of the American environmental movement. He has been speaking publicly about nuclear power over the past year, and I’ve seen him raise several points worth contemplating.

Considering Persuasion

To follow previous brief thoughts on political order and civic virtue and community, the social knowledge embodied in the organic formation of civic community under the obligations of law must also be anchored in generational morality.

The witness of Father Botros

Here is a fascinating and uplifting article about a Coptic priest, Father Zakaria Botros. Considered by some to be Islam’s “Public Enemy #1,” he is a fearless advocate for Christ through his television talk show.

The Style and Substance of John Paul II

This Holy Week, I am reminded of the man I admire second only to my late father: John Paul II. His words, actions, and love through the course of his life are a profoundly beautiful example of Christian charity and service. And as death approached, he taught us how to age and pass away with dignity. His words and deeds produced profound and lasting effects among hugely varied audiences. When John Paul spoke on economic and social policy, he addressed an array of positions in moderation and in unquestionable concern for all people. He acknowledged the benefits of free enterprise, for example, but warned against its excesses and exaggerated competition. And he never shied away from the Church’s rightful promotion of the interests of the poor and marginalized. Above all, John Paul sought to protect Church norms rooted in the authenticity of Christ and Apostolic succession from the horrific onslaughts of the Twentieth Century, which reached their terrible heights in the two collectivist, radical, secular totalitarianisms that brought so much suffering to his continent. He used intimate, personal language and a populist, open style to remind – in person and in any available medium – many hundreds of millions of the importance of the sacred. His first encyclical, Redemptor Hominis, points us toward a vision of the whole of the human experience, a vision that can only be understood through the “original link with the divine source,” Our Lord. This week, let us not forget that the Redeemer of man, Jesus Christ, is the centre of the universe and of history. John Paul, pray for us!

Worth a Look: From Around the Web

From Jerry Z. Muller, Professor of History at the Catholic University of America: Us and Them: The Enduring Power of Ethnic Nationalism. Muller argues that ethnic nationalism is hugely powerful in any multiethnic society, that it is not going away anytime soon, and that ethnic disaggregation or partition is often the least bad answer. Sociologist Robert Putnam has studied places like Los Angeles closely, and the future is not terribly promising. In sum, more “diversity” may well mean less trust and social capital. The Boston Globe reported on his work here. From Cato Unbound, a provocative essay on patriotism. In the Village Voice, one of America’s most prominent dramatists and screenwriters, David Mamet, explains why he is no longer a man of the left. Ross Douthat, a sharp fellow and one of my favorite commentators, considers prostitution and morality. Jonah Goldberg, whose excellent new book I reviewed here, responds to Michael Tomasky’s criticism which may be read here.

Finally, and most troublingly, Christiana Hoff Summers asks: Why Can’t a Woman Be More Like a Man? This is a very important article (and not just for the fascinating tidbits about Math 55). It seems possible that Title IX will be expanded to science and math education. If so, expect some seriously damaging social engineering. Why must it be considered so unhealthy - absent any discriminatory barriers to entry - if men and women tend not to have the same interests or aptitudes? To appease the ego and status posturing of those who know better than us, of course.

A Brief Abstraction of the State

The most dangerous constants of our human condition – selfishness, status-seeking, the thoughtless imposition of will – have no solution absent death and full union with Christ. The state does not give meaning or dignity; every person possesses these inherently wholly apart from that place where individuality and family identity are formed. Unity organized by the state is false in any moment when concepts of “justice,” “rationalism,” and “rights” are taken to the uniformity of existence. Pope Pius XI writes in his encyclical Quadragesimo Anno: “The supreme authority of the State ought, therefore, to let subordinate groups handle matters and concerns of lesser importance, which would otherwise dissipate its efforts greatly. Thereby the State will more freely, powerfully, and effectively do all those things that belong to it alone because it alone can do them: directing, watching, urging, restraining, as occasion requires and necessity demands.” There should be, in other words, an order of voluntary associations serving as a barrier between the state and the individual, family, and community. The state is the arbiter and never a servant to a particular class or metaphysical interest. Our spiritual unity should always be grounded in the shared humanity cleansed by our creator and redeemer. The society possessing spiritual-like goals to be overseen by the state is the society that takes idealism into the realm of prohibitive and unforeseen danger.

Wheelchairs for Iraqi Kids

Here is a CNN article and video about an effort started by a college friend that I am extremely proud to support, Wheelchairs for Iraqi Kids. Materials come from ROC Wheels and some of the labor is donated by prisoners. Please pray for this mission and consider supporting their effort.

Settling

As this is the day when greeting card, candy, and flower sellers have decided we should formally think on our romantic lives, here and here are two articles I enjoyed. And given the highly sensitive subject material - no commentary from me!

“What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.”
Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Architectural Effects

The colleges and gardens of Oxford, which I was recently blessed enough to visit for the third time, are so beautifully arranged and constructed that one can inexplicably sense the soul uplift. The environment almost demanded prayerful reflection. It was as if I was an extension of the worshipful praise that was channeled through the skill of those who started the chapels and rooms nearly one thousand years ago. There are places where large stone walls build by the Romans still serve their function. The weight of history cleansed petty thoughts. Yet there are also areas adjacent to these where cold, soulless modernist designs have infected what should be among the most pleasant scenery one can imagine.

Socialization and Political Order

“A living heritage picnics on the graves of its ancestors. That is no trespass, but is instead an act of loving continuity with the past. And the successful inhabitation of a place requires transmitting the intimacy of that fidelity, not in ‘still life’ to strangers, but across generations within the ties that bind. Those ties that bind – buttressed by a natural effect for survival under conditions of hardship and scarcity – form the only existential context within which the ghosts rest easy.”
-Caleb Stegall

Liberal democracy and individualism are a radical imposition on the human psyche. Through a deep and powerful evolutionary impulse, humans are tribal; they desire socialization and strive continuously to build a safe community for social activity. Human nature has no history. Whatever the environment, similar patterns will be present: selfishness, status-seeking, socialization, and the desire for meaningful employment. But there are universal values worth actively maintaining across generations and across environments.

Considering Fascism

For fans of political history, few things annoy more than the misuse of terms. Americans are particularly bad about this, but I think for understandable reasons – our revolution (an un-conservative term) was “conservative” in that our strange mixture of Greco-Roman civic republicanism, therapeutic deism, and Enlightenment thinking came to be successfully at peace with market liberalism. And alongside traditionalism and religiosity, sympathy for this economic viewpoint is a workable model for what it means to be of the right, or in our terminology a conservative. It is rather odd, then, that fascism has come to be thought of a rightist phenomenon. It certainly was labeled as such shortly after Italian socialists popularized the term – but only within the socialist movement! The fascists were national socialists, opposed to the internationalists who submitted to Moscow. Deviations to nationalist sentiment, as opposed to class, were labeled “right wing.” Yet the view of what was to be done internally was remarkably similar - “Everything within the State, nothing outside the State,” according to Mussolini. To nationalize is to socialize, and to socialize is to nationalize, as Jonah Goldberg points out in his new book. (It’s a serious and rather dense work despite the designed to sell cover and title). Fascism should not be a synonym for “war lust” or “racism” however defined, cheaply imported as a modern epithet. It was a serious intellectual and global project, usually hyper-nationalist and always utopian.

Considering Strauss

A couple of my professors are admirers of Leo Strauss, and I have only recently started to read him in more depth. This is very much worth the time. He is a radical thinker much abused these days by those cheaply wielding a political club so as to whack around those who, unlike them, are not foreign policy “realists” (which basically means they dare to disagree at this time on this point on this particular topic). Strauss, however, was much more concerned with ancient political philosophy than any contemporary controversy. Someone who understands Plato in the original language told me that Strauss is right about Plato, and eventually this will be in little dispute among scholars. To generalize quite crudely, he advanced the idea that ancient philosophers tended to not believe in the transcendent realities they were speculating over, that this is “hidden” in the writings, but that it was vital for the health of a functioning community that people believed in transcendent realities and in the human ability to speculate about them.

And there is much else besides: take a look at liberal democracy. In his early life in Germany, Strauss lived under the threat of fascist collectivism in its National Socialist and its Bolshevik forms. But by investigating classical philosophy, Strauss came to conclude that liberal democracy (defined chiefly as the ability to disagree and legislate with minority protections) is the best protector of individual and family freedom. For this, it deserves our devotion. Yet there are significant weaknesses, such as the ability to abuse political autonomy so as to destroy the same through populist, democratic uprisings. Free societies are inherently unstable. Thus there is a morality set apart from and superior to those that may exist and be debated under this form of political organization. Strauss was especially critical of Nietzsche, the man he felt to be the giant figure of his time: Nietzsche’s criticism of the emerging liberal orders relied on the very same classical and biblical sources he sought to cast aside. If this is true, it was significant evidence for him of the continuing strength of the biblical notion that man exists with a purpose, even as Strauss maintained a healthy skepticism of the transcendent. He was, after all, an admirer of Plato.

Not Good

Out-of-wedlock births have sharply increased over the last decade. The stable two-parent family is the very foundation of a good and more prosperous society. It is also a reflection of the Triune God: three or more come together as one. Let us pray for these children, who come into life with less than they deserve. (I don’t mean to write negatively of single mothers - I was raised by one).

Organic, Cultivated Civic Virtue

If a culture no longer believes there is an objective, reasonable truth that can be discovered, then can it be asserted by the governing authorities that such things as fundamental human rights, freedom of religion, and the idea that persuasion is better than coercion exist? Does the absence of belief in an imprinted rationality upon the created allow for the development of a warped “theology” where a given will can come to command nearly anything?

Romney: Closed to the Public

On Thursday, Mitt Romney is going to appear at Texas A&M University to give his version of Kennedy’s 1960 address to those uncetain about his religious faith. After going to A&M’s public event ticket booth, however, I discovered to my disappointment that this event will be closed to the public. His remarks will evidently be made available later. This is not the best way to address those uncomfortable about his Mormon faith, and I hope he faces criticism for it. (The always worth your time Ross Douthat has thoughts on the strategy of this speech.) The more people see of Romney, the less they seem to like him. TV and radio spots can only take you so far, and his history of blatant opportunism this primary season is exactly the opposite of leaders we should admire - those who stand their ground and fight for their ideas in the democratic arena, no matter the shifting winds of public opinion.

The Presidential Medal of Freedom

Today, President Bush will award the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to two extremely worthy individuals: Henry Hyde and Dr. Oscar Biscet. Aside from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, quite possibly our greatest living writer, it would close to impossible to find two better champions of human rights.

Biscet, a deeply Christian man and longtime democracy advocate, languishes in a Cuban prison. Recently, the president forcefully spoke on his behalf:

James Watson

We are learning a huge amount about our genetic history, but are we prepared for the public policy debates? The treatment of one of our most prominent scientists and a pioneer of DNA, James Watson, suggests not. Jason Malloy at gene expression takes a definitive look. I’m very far from an expert, but our political culture needs to have the capacity to at least debate these issues and their policy implications.

Bowling With Others

Let us assume that morality arises in part from sympathy among like-minded persons: first the family, then friends and colleagues. Rights grow from convictions about how we ought to manage relations with people not like us, convictions that are nourished by education, religion, and experience. As such, assimilation to cultural, societal, and political norms are desirable for the continued health of a community. James Q. Wilson has an illuminating piece about Robert Putnam’s study of community, which was just recently released years
after its completion.

There is much that is attractive about civic virtue in its Aristotelian sense: the good man is a good citizen when present in a good society. Included in such a society would be temperance, agreeableness, modesty, courage, and an appreciation of beauty and accomplishment. Virtue in this classical sense is goodness, principle, and high moral character. Yet people of any background are plagued by mediocrity and vice. And what if non-homogeneous populations have difficulty coming together for the common good? There is powerful evidence that to protect your “tribe” is in a way the advancement of the genes of your family, a deeply powerful evolutionary impulse that has served humanity and the development of civilization well. This is a difficult and complex issue made even more so by the quick and easy charge of xenophobia or racism constantly threatening our discourse. But they are important to think through for anyone who values community.

Considering Community

One recognizable but little discussed aspect of rights in developed nations is the denial of the same Enlightenment tools of analysis enjoyed by those who see themselves as protectors of the oppressed to those who criticize not the comfortable complacencies of Western nations but the all too frequent horrors of their prior communities.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a courageous woman originally from Somalia and now always under the constant and legitimate threat of murder as a citizen in the West, is a noteworthy but not untypical example. There are many who would like her to keep her mouth shut - she is an annoying distraction and troublemaker. But there is a more fundamental problem than being forced to confront the ugly truth that much of the world would happily deny you your comforts.

Art and Real Life

Thursday (or He Who Must Be Bookmarked) has an interesting post about Tolkien. It got me thinking about fantasy and real life…

Weigel

The official biographer of John Paul, George Weigel, gave a talk on Friday and I wish I had taken notes. But these are the points that stuck with me:

- John Paul insisted that the Catholic faith has a Marian function, and that the Church began with her yes to the Lord. Just as the Church has a Pauline function (evangelization), a Johnine function (discipleship), and a Peterine function (authority), so too do we see the foundation of service and pure love with the Blessed Mother.
- Benedict, from the very heart of Europe, is a formidable, kind, and cultured man who was seen by the electors as a last hope for the continent. He is someone who cannot be dismissed as a superstitious oddity from the backwaters. The pope tells audiences there, in public and in private, that his homeland must learn to again welcome children or it will perish. It must mourn the dead and acknowledge that life has meaning.
- Benedict has interacted the Latin American bishops somewhat harshly, telling them in effect to “shape up” by not blaming others for the state of their countries and the spiritual directions of their people. If evangelicals are making gains, then the Church must respond with improvement, and they must work cooperatively with their Protestant brothers and sisters against the forces of secularization.
- The pope believes strongly there must be no detachment of faith and reason, nor a loss of faith in reason. When this occurs, there is an interruption in the moral grammar as nearly anything can be justified by arbitrary decisions.

Our biggest domestic problem

There is a wealth of empirical data and anecdotal evidence that points to something I think we know is instinctively true, even as it’s not a large enough part of public discussions about poverty and socioeconomic status: motherhood before marriage is a disaster for all involved.

Free Speech and Judicial Review

Free speech is not only a matter of law; there are also concerns of society, culture, and politics. Truly free speech, of course, doesn’t exist. We are not allowed to say whatever we want whenever we want, a safeguard against slander and physical distress. But the United States is still remarkably loose in the regulations of speech, and Americans seem content to let the anti-democratic, anti-populist check of the judicial branch set its boundaries. This raises the generalization: is more speech better speech, with opinions short of slander out in the open; or should there an acceptance of greater regulation, so as to defend public virtue?

If the latter, then whatever the content given the word “liberty” in the Fourteenth Amendment, it is a liberty that may be abridged with due process of law.

Lincoln as a Catholic figure

The Scriptures convey that all persons were created in the image of God. Scripture, in fact, forces the reader to take seriously this claim. Catholic teaching likewise insists that the modern world confront this fundamental truth. Inherent human worth is given to humanity by God, to be protected until we are called home to full communion. Our temporal heroes come to be admired when they understand this, no matter the cost. 

Christian Persuasion

One of the greatest Saints of the Church, St. Augustine, was also a renowed teacher of persuasion. In Book IV of De Doctrina Christiana (On Christian Doctrine) he labels rhetoric as the “verbal expression of thought.”

Moral judgments are awkward and difficult in a culture losing its confidence in certainty and wisdom, in St. Augustine’s time and in ours. Good rhetoric has as its root the actual. Included would be ethics, values, and a sermonic language that persuades by drawing others into cautionary action made careful by the understanding that the human will must take into account the fixed nature of things. The fact that each audience is unique, in other words, does not mean that fundamental certainties about the human condition are adjusted even as rhetoricians adapt presentation to various audience situations.

The road to dictatorship

It seems that Hugo Chavez wants to be president for life. He has proposed large-scale changes to the constitution of Venezuela and is likely to face little formal legislative opposition, as many of his political opponents are boycotting his rule. These developments are worth watching.

Jesus as a Political Figure

According to a new book by Tod Lindberg, The Political Teachings of Jesus, the Lord understood “clearly the high stakes involved in his political teaching.” His view of the Beatitudes is worth a look.

Vulgar Faith

How thin is the line between the sacred and the profane? As a convert, I can understand how much of the “extra” of Catholicism – saints, statues, relics, the rosary, holy water, and so on – can appear not just unnecessary but distracting and somewhat vulgar. All we need is faith and our personal relationship to Jesus! ….. a mindset that is not incorrect so much as incomplete because our relationship to all of the “extra” should be Christ-centric. Rod Dreher has interesting thoughts on this. I love the idea, for example, that the Blessed Virgin is important because of her Son, and that He is the reason for her existence and for our life. How to explain this to outsiders? It’s difficult with words and easier with actions of holiness, but much of the objections are understandable. I just hope we stay away from the gaudy and money-grubbing Protestant extremes as much as possible. I think it would be easier than we would like, however, for Catholics to cross the thin line into the profane.

Pray for Zimbabwe

Robert Mugabe is well into the process of destroying Zimbabwe. A country that was once the breadbasket for much of Africa is rapidly descending into another deeply depressing story from this troubled continent. Let us remember one of the good guys of Zimbabwe, Pius Ncube, the Archbishop of Bulawayo. He and all the people there face not just personal danger from government authorities, but mass starvation as a result of decades of severe economic and political mismanagement. It breaks the heart to hear him call for international intervention.