{"id":817,"date":"2013-04-15T21:04:13","date_gmt":"2013-04-16T01:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=817"},"modified":"2013-04-15T21:04:13","modified_gmt":"2013-04-16T01:04:13","slug":"revisiting-conservative-principles-a-look-at-russell-kirk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2013\/04\/revisiting-conservative-principles-a-look-at-russell-kirk.html","title":{"rendered":"Revisiting Conservative Principles: A Look at Russell Kirk"},"content":{"rendered":"

The name of \u201cRussell Kirk\u201d is heard seldom, if ever, in conservative circles today.\u00a0 This is tragic, and maybe even a bit scandalous, for as William F. Buckley\u2014a person whose name is <\/em>well known\u2014once said, it \u201cis inconceivable even to imagine, let alone hope for, a dominant conservative movement in America without [Kirks\u2019] labor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given all of the current talk over the need for a reawakening to conservative \u201cprinciples,\u201d we are in need of Kirk\u2019s guidance today more than ever.<\/p>\n

The author of 32 books and legions of essays, this World War II veteran was a college educator, novelist, intellectual historian, and political theorist.\u00a0 At Buckley\u2019s request, Kirk helped to found National Review, <\/em>a publication to which he contributed for many years.\u00a0 <\/em>He also founded his own magazine, Modern Age.\u00a0 <\/em>Kirk gave over 60 lectures to the Heritage Foundation, where he was a Distinguished Fellow, and was very much involved with the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.\u00a0 In 1989, five years before his illustrious life came to a close, Kirk was granted the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Ronald Reagan.<\/p>\n

Conservatism, Kirk explained, is neither a doctrine nor a dogma, but \u201ca way of looking at the civil social order.\u201d \u00a0Still, from looking at the \u201cleading conservative writers and public men\u201d from \u201cthe past two centuries,\u201d Kirk gathered ten principles that distinguish conservatism as the intellectual tradition that it is.<\/p>\n

First, there is \u201can enduring moral order\u201d of both \u201cthe soul\u201d and \u201cthe commonwealth.\u201d\u00a0 It is at our peril, conservatives insist, that we ignore this order.<\/p>\n

Second, \u201ccustom, convention, and continuity\u201d constitute the glue that keeps us together.<\/p>\n

Custom \u201cenables people to live together peaceably,\u201d convention helps us \u201cto avoid perpetual disputes about rights and duties,\u201d and continuity \u201cis the means of linking generation to generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Third, prescription\u2014<\/em>\u201cthings established by immemorial usage\u201d\u2014is the stuff of which a flourishing civil society is made.<\/p>\n

Since we are not likely \u201cto make any brave new discoveries in morals or politics,\u201d since we are \u201cdwarfs on the shoulders of giants, able to see farther than [our] ancestors only because of the great stature of those who have preceded us in time,\u201d we are best served by following the prescriptions of thousands of generations.<\/p>\n

Fourth, prudence is a cardinal virtue.<\/p>\n

Change is needed if society is to preserve itself, but prudence demands that we attend to it cautiously, and only after considerable reflection. \u201cSudden and slashing reforms are as perilous as sudden and slashing surgery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fifth, variety is both necessary and desirable.<\/p>\n

Conservatives \u201cfeel affection for the proliferating intricacy of long-established social institutions and modes of life [.]\u201d On the other hand, they abhor \u201cthe narrowing uniformity and deadening egalitarianism of radical systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sixth principle is that of human imperfectability.<\/p>\n

Because human beings suffer \u201cirremediably from certain grave faults,\u201d the best \u201cthat we reasonably can expect is a tolerably ordered, just, and free society, in which some evils, maladjustments, and suffering will continue to lurk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seventh, freedom and property are indissolubly linked.<\/p>\n

\u201cUpon the foundation of private property, great civilizations are built,\u201d Kirk writes.\u00a0 He adds:\u00a0 \u201cSeparate property from private possession, and Leviathan [the government] becomes master of all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eighth, \u201cvoluntary community\u201d is as essential to the civil order as \u201cinvoluntary collectivism\u201d is destructive of it.<\/p>\n

Duty and virtue are learned within our local communities\u2014our \u201clittle platoons,\u201d as \u201cthe patron saint\u201d of modern conservatism, Edmund Burke, famously called them.\u00a0 But when, \u201cin the name of an abstract Democracy, the functions of community are transferred to distant political direction,\u201d this centralization of authority and power proves \u201chostile to freedom and human dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ninth, there must be \u201cprudent restraints upon power and upon human passions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kirk notes that \u201cpolitical power\u201d must be \u201cbalanced\u201d so as to prevent both \u201canarchy\u201d and \u201ctyranny,\u201d both the unbounded will of the individual and that of any group.\u00a0 To this end, \u201cconstitutional restrictions, political checks and balances, adequate enforcement of the laws,\u201d and \u201cthe old intricate web of restraints upon will and appetite\u201d are indispensable.<\/p>\n

The tenth and final principle of the conservative attitude concerns the affirmation and harmonizing of \u201cpermanence and change\u201d in \u201ca vigorous society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kirk succinctly summarizes this principle when he writes: \u201cThe conservative takes care that nothing in a society should ever be wholly old, and that nothing should ever be wholly new.\u00a0 This is the means of the conservation of a nation, quite as it is the means of conservation of a living organism.\u201d<\/p>\n

If today\u2019s conservatives are serious about wanting to return to \u201cthe roots\u201d of their tradition, then they have no option but to familiarize themselves with Russell Kirk.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The name of \u201cRussell Kirk\u201d is heard seldom, if ever, in conservative circles today.\u00a0 This is tragic, and maybe even a bit scandalous, for as William F. Buckley\u2014a person whose name is well known\u2014once said, it \u201cis inconceivable even to imagine, let alone hope for, a dominant conservative movement in America without [Kirks\u2019] labor.\u201d Given…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nRevisiting Conservative Principles: A Look at Russell Kirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2013\/04\/revisiting-conservative-principles-a-look-at-russell-kirk.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Revisiting Conservative Principles: A Look at Russell Kirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The name of \u201cRussell Kirk\u201d is heard seldom, if ever, in conservative circles today.\u00a0 This is tragic, and maybe even a bit scandalous, for as William F. 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