The Party Of "No"

This past Christmas I received a copy of Russell Kirk's The Conservative Mind. It may take me 'til next Christmas to finish reading the 500-page tome—nobody will mistake it for a page-turner. I keep re-reading sections to fully absorb concepts that seem familiar, but are expressed in words that have changed meaning since the mid-1700s.

The first thinker profiled is Irishman Edmund Burke, who had to invent conservatism to save the world from...Democracy, Romanticism and Reason. For 150 years he was best-known for his book Reflections on the French Revolution. He wrote his withering critique despite being famous—or infamous—in England for supporting the American Revolution. Today he is best-known for what JFK said to the Canadian Parliament in 1961:

As the great parliamentarian Edmund Burke said, 

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

And thus was born a conundrum: how is the inclination to leave things as they are (ie: do no harm) compatible with the sort of "activism" implied by the quotation above? The great modern conservative William F. Buckley resolved this well in describing the mission of his weekly magazine.

It stands athwart history, yelling "Stop!"

Burke declared that men do not make laws, they either ratify or distort the laws of God. He believed that wise men succeeded in improving civil society only to the extent that they had followed Providence. So the barons, bishops and abbots who were party to the Magna Carta of 1215 were not creating anything new—rather they were identifying, clarifying and codifying ancient wisdom from previous generations.

In the Bible, two passages spring to mind in this regard. First is Proverbs 22:28, which warns "Do not move an ancient boundary stone set up by your ancestors." And second is the story of the foolish young king Rehoboam in 1 Kings 12: "Rejecting the advice given him by the elders, he followed the advice of the young men and...the king did not listen to the people." Misery, loss and civil strife marked Rehoboam's reign.

The conservative understands that change is inevitable in this world, but she is predisposed to venerate the ancient and look to Providence when deciding what to change and what to conserve. The conservative is also committed to understanding what is right, and true, and pure, and of good report. Burke referred to this search for wisdom as Prejudice—literally pre-judging the nature of humans, their inclinations toward sin and the institutions that best bridle their appetites and allow for harmonious living. So when innovations spring up, the conservative has a framework from which to accept or reject change.

This is why I solemnly align myself, in these days of purported Reason and Enlightenment, with those who are willing to stand up and say "No, stop!".