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Announcement
I will be reducing my participation in View from the Right for the next couple of months in order to concentrate on another project. This has been a momentous time for America and for conservatism. The central focus of this web site, since Jim Kalb founded it almost a year ago, has been on the critique of liberalism/leftism, particularly its ideology of anti-transcendence and non-discrimination, and on the building up of traditionalist understandings. We’ve also dealt at great length with the particular issues generated by the September 11 attack and the conflict with our Islamic enemies. During this period deep fissures have opened between the antiwar (and, in many instances, I believe, anti-American) right, and a traditionalist conservatism which, while radically critical of modern America and its dominant culture, has not retreated into the self-feeding alienation and irrational resentment that now characterizes so much of the paleo right. More ominous than the controversies within the right is the larger alienation and disaffection within the mainstream population of America and of the West as a whole. This negativism is not directed against the present dominant culture of the West, since that dominant culture is itself the chief source and instigator of the negativism, but rather at the remnants of the older Western culture which the present dominant culture has delegitimized and, to a significant extent, destroyed. Indeed, the greater the destruction of the older Western culture, the greater the left’s anger against it whenever any remnant of it appears. Any serious expression of nationhood, of sovereignty, of Christianity, of the older moral virtues, of natural human differences, or of a sense of identity with the historic peoples who created our civilization, sets off frenzies of hatred among both liberals and, in many instances, mainstream “conservatives.” It renews their dedication, in the words of Tony Blair, to “sweep away all those forces of conservatism.” We hope and pray that that attempt will fail.
However, the keynote of VFR, which one finds particularly in the writings of Jim Kalb, is not pessimism, but optimism. More than any conservative thinker I know of, Jim has uncovered the fundamental flaws and contradictions of modern liberalism and thus—despite all its appearances of effortless and total dominance—its essential vulnerability. It is a system of thought and social control which is not true to reality and which requires its proponents to take indefensible positions. As we continue to chip away at those weaknesses, liberalism will continue to lose its credibility and legitimacy, which in turn will open the way to a sounder grasp of political reality and to a more spiritually sound culture.
Comments
Mr. Auster, thank you for all your contributions and for your invaluable efforts toward these ends which you outline here. This web-site and blog have been for me personally (and I hope will continue to be) no less than a God-send. Posted by: Unadorned on April 3, 2003 12:34 PMI second Unadorned statement and look forward to your return. Posted by: frieda on April 3, 2003 2:43 PMMy profound thanks, Mr. Auster, for all of your thoughtful insights and excellent work. VFR is a wonderful site and truly the home of traditional conservative ideas. Best wishes on your upcoming project. Like Unadorned and Frieda, I look forward to your return. Posted by: Carl on April 3, 2003 4:03 PMI do hope you come back. I have enoyed this blog and read it almost daily;) Posted by: Victoria on April 3, 2003 5:13 PMThanks very much, all, for the kind words. The sabbatical from VFR will not be total, however. I will still be posting articles from time to time. Posted by: Lawrence Auster on April 4, 2003 10:57 AMThough I disagree with Mr. Auster on this war, and on the nature of the paleo right, I have always found his posts stimulating and well reasoned. Hopefully the project involves immigration, which I believe is the number one issue for all the West. Best Wishes. Posted by: Mitchell Young on April 5, 2003 7:45 AMMr. Auster, best wishes on your project. We will look forward to your posts and your return. Posted by: Gracián on April 5, 2003 12:42 PMI second Mr. Mitchell’s thoughts and add Mr. Auster has challenged me to think like no other pro-war writer. At times, I have given the impression that my only purpose at VFR is to make trouble for him. That is something I regret for he and I agree on most other issues. Godspeed, Mr. Auster. Posted by: Jason Eubanks on April 5, 2003 8:27 PMDear Mr. Auster, Good luck on your upcoming project and please keep posting your EXCELLENT comments! I have found new insight and challenges in every one of the articles I have read by you. Thank you for your work in the past and return soon to this venue again. Posted by: David Hansen on April 7, 2003 4:30 PMAs Mr. Auster alludes to, alienation is the stock in trade of the (post)modern gnostics. As long as what Voegelin dubbed the “egophanic revolution” continues, there will continue to be a perceptible divide between how the culture says things are, and how they really are. No one is completed untainted by this corruption, but VFR offers a good space to get away from the Kultursmog and breath air that is fresh and free. Posted by: Bill Riggs on April 18, 2003 1:19 PM |