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The essential tenets of neoconservatism
Another neocon regular, Joshua (“The Apparatchnik”) Muravchik of AEI, is trying to buck up the neocon troops in the autumn of their discontent. He issues a neoconservative credo, in the form of a memo to his fellow neocons, that shows he hasn’t learnt a thing from the events of the past few years:
The essential tenets of neoconservatism—belief that world peace is indivisible, that ideas are powerful, that freedom and democracy are universally valid, and that evil exists and must be confronted—are as valid today as when we first began.A VFR reader comments:
World peace and democracy are the goals of socialism! There is nothing in conservatism that says that. Both nature and Christianity preach that “All men are bad.” War is inevitable. “Freedom and democracy” are NOT universally valid!It is certainly the case that neoconservatism as defined by Muravchik has no overlap with anything traditionally or recognizably American. He doesn’t even pretend to situate neoconservatism within an American context. This is useful to remember.
(Also, it’s interesting that the reader sees this in terms of socialism, since Muravchik, according to Wikipedia, was national chairman of the Young People’s Socialist League from 1968 to 1973. Since then, of course, he has become a critic of socialism, yet, as can be seen by his neocon credo, his world view is still essentially leftist.) Email entry |