The Republican Party won in 2016. In fact, Conservatives dominated American politics since the Cold War became hot, winning incredible achievements beyond their wildest of dreams. This is the argument that Corey Robin presents us with in his book The Reactionary Mind, against mainstream pundits inability to explain the rise of the Trump Presidency. The Reactionary Mind was first published in 2013 and was recently updated with Robin's post 2016 election essays on Trumpism from n+1 Magazine. The book is an intellectual history of the Conservative moment from Edmund Burke's reaction the French Revolution to the Presidency of Donald Trump. Above all, Corey Robin's stance that Conservative thought should be taken seriously, and not simply brushed off as series of irrational ideas, is the book's greatest strength.
The intellectual tradition of Conservatism emerged against the French Revolution's challenges to monarchy and hereditary privilege. The 1789 French upheaval was one of the first major conflicts that pitted class against class, rather than the ruling class's preferred contest between nations. At its heart, Conservatism is an intervention for the felt experience of having power and it being threatened or lost. It is reactionary because it is rooted in regaining what was lost, if not completely, at least partially. Counter-enlightenment thinkers and reactionary defenders of monarchy such as Edmund Burke and Joseph de Maistre, sought to preserve the privileges of the old regime by remaking it anew. As Corey Robin puts it: "Counterrevolution, in other words, is one of the ways in which the conservative makes feudalism seem fresh and medievalism modern." Burke and De Maistre sought this by bitterly criticizing the old regime in their writings. As Edmund Burke put it, the beauty and extravagance of the ruling class was a sign of its decadence. Their hatred of the old regime was not unique, in fact it was borrowed from the Jacobins, and other left forces of the French Revolution who set out to destroy the royal family.
Against each social movement from below, the Right takes the language of democratic reform from the left, and adopts it to its own will, often unconsciously. In this way, conservatism not only appeals to the outsider, but it relies on outsider voices in order for gain popular support for its claims. Using an example from the Antebellum South, Robin shows that the poor and modest whites knew that they were unequal to the rich planter class. Still, the white masses saw the "illusion of superiority" as a benefit, so they participated and sustained the racist social order o the South. The felt experience of dominating the black population beneath them became an end in itself.
At its heart, Conservatism is an ideology of self-victimization. Its primary aim to to recovery and restore power over the lower social orders. While revolutionaries on the left seek to empower those who never held power, conservatives simply ask that power be returned to those who have the necessary experience in wielding power. For Trump, this experience is his expertise in the Art of the Deal. To him, complex issues of international relations can be resolved by better deal making. If that doesn't work, he sues. Victories are calculated tallied with cold, hard cash. What this ultimately tells us is that the conservative doctrine is not just about maintaining the status quo, it is about turning back the clock to an older, more hierarchy driven era, a a remedy for social ills. It is a rebranding of social darwinism for our times. If we are to beat back the right, centrist policies won't be enough. We must continually seek radical policies that disrupt conservative thought. By relentlessly putting conservative thought on the defensive, we make it harder for the right to manipulate and appeal to the masses by adopting and adapting to our tactics.
The intellectual tradition of Conservatism emerged against the French Revolution's challenges to monarchy and hereditary privilege. The 1789 French upheaval was one of the first major conflicts that pitted class against class, rather than the ruling class's preferred contest between nations. At its heart, Conservatism is an intervention for the felt experience of having power and it being threatened or lost. It is reactionary because it is rooted in regaining what was lost, if not completely, at least partially. Counter-enlightenment thinkers and reactionary defenders of monarchy such as Edmund Burke and Joseph de Maistre, sought to preserve the privileges of the old regime by remaking it anew. As Corey Robin puts it: "Counterrevolution, in other words, is one of the ways in which the conservative makes feudalism seem fresh and medievalism modern." Burke and De Maistre sought this by bitterly criticizing the old regime in their writings. As Edmund Burke put it, the beauty and extravagance of the ruling class was a sign of its decadence. Their hatred of the old regime was not unique, in fact it was borrowed from the Jacobins, and other left forces of the French Revolution who set out to destroy the royal family.
Against each social movement from below, the Right takes the language of democratic reform from the left, and adopts it to its own will, often unconsciously. In this way, conservatism not only appeals to the outsider, but it relies on outsider voices in order for gain popular support for its claims. Using an example from the Antebellum South, Robin shows that the poor and modest whites knew that they were unequal to the rich planter class. Still, the white masses saw the "illusion of superiority" as a benefit, so they participated and sustained the racist social order o the South. The felt experience of dominating the black population beneath them became an end in itself.
At its heart, Conservatism is an ideology of self-victimization. Its primary aim to to recovery and restore power over the lower social orders. While revolutionaries on the left seek to empower those who never held power, conservatives simply ask that power be returned to those who have the necessary experience in wielding power. For Trump, this experience is his expertise in the Art of the Deal. To him, complex issues of international relations can be resolved by better deal making. If that doesn't work, he sues. Victories are calculated tallied with cold, hard cash. What this ultimately tells us is that the conservative doctrine is not just about maintaining the status quo, it is about turning back the clock to an older, more hierarchy driven era, a a remedy for social ills. It is a rebranding of social darwinism for our times. If we are to beat back the right, centrist policies won't be enough. We must continually seek radical policies that disrupt conservative thought. By relentlessly putting conservative thought on the defensive, we make it harder for the right to manipulate and appeal to the masses by adopting and adapting to our tactics.
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