Conserving and ‘Un-conserving’

Collin Bastian on May 2, 2022

Israeli philosopher, Bible scholar, and political theorist Yoram Hazony and Georgetown professor of political theory Joshua Mitchell join IRD’s Marc LiVecche for a discussion on Hazony’s forthcoming book, Conservatism: A Rediscovery.

Hazony argues that the best hope for Western democracy is a return to the conservative traditions that brought greatness to the English-speaking nations and became a model for national freedom for the entire world. Kicking off with the question “What would it take to actually conserve something?” Hazony reflects on questions regarding hierarchy and honor, the traditional family versus the nuclear family, and the nation; giving particular attention to the way these relate to the transmission of traditions of God and scripture.

Joshua Mitchell draws on his work American Awakening: Identity Politics and Other Afflictions of Our Time as he specifies how the French Revolution (in Tocqueville’s words, “an incomplete religion”), Marxism (the second incomplete religion to plague the West), and now identity politics (the third incomplete religion) wish, citing Marx, to “abolish the present state of things.” How do these ideologies go about their plan to “un-conserve?”

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