<div dir="ltr"><h1 class="m_1674076278711564159gmail-article-title">Sir Roger Scruton reflects on conservatism rather than attacking socialism and liberalism</h1>
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<div class="m_1674076278711564159gmail-article-author">by <b><a href="http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/author/francis-phillips/" title="Posts by Francis Phillips" rel="author" target="_blank">Francis Phillips</a></b></div>
<div class="m_1674076278711564159gmail-article-date">posted <time datetime="2017-09-22 08:51:05">Friday, 22 Sep 2017</time></div><div class="m_1674076278711564159gmail-article-date"><time datetime="2017-09-22 08:51:05"><a href="http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2017/09/22/want-to-know-what-conservatism-really-is-try-this-admirable-book/" target="_blank">http://www.catholicherald.co.<wbr>uk/commentandblogs/2017/09/22/<wbr>want-to-know-what-<wbr>conservatism-really-is-try-<wbr>this-admirable-book/</a><br></time></div>
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<div class="m_1674076278711564159gmail-article-featured"><img src="http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/content/uploads/2017/09/scruton-fb-800x499.jpg" class="m_1674076278711564159gmail-featured-image m_1674076278711564159gmail-wp-post-image" alt="" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="175" height="109"> <div class="m_1674076278711564159gmail-featured-caption">
Roger Scruton </div>
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<p class="m_1674076278711564159gmail-article-standfirst">Sir Roger Scruton reflects on conservatism rather than attacking socialism and liberalism</p>
<p>I have been having a recent run-in with an American Facebook
“friend”. He insists that “conservatism” (with a small “c”) is the same
as capitalism and is another word for a system that allows greedy bosses
to crush the workers. I keep trying to explain, without success, that
conservatism is neither the unacceptable face of capitalism nor modern
Conservatism.</p>
<p>In desperation I have pointed him towards <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Sir Roger Scruton’s
admirable little book,</b></span> published in paperback in 2015, entitled<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b> How to
be A Conservative.</b></span> It was Scruton who introduced me to Edmund Burke’s
“little platoons” which I referred to in my last blog. As someone whose
own conservatism was deeply influenced by witnessing the 1968 student
protests in Paris, <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Scruton addresses a readership that cares for
common-law justice, parliamentary democracy, private charity, public
spirit and those little platoons of volunteers that all go to make civil
society possible and enduring.</b></span></p>
<p>Naturally enough,<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b> Scruton is a convinced Brexiteer,</b><b> not because he</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">is
stupid or racist (common slurs put out by Remainers last year</span>) <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>but
because, as he argues eloquently in his book, the values of conservatism
depend on the good maintenance of the nation-state and, following on
from this, national borders.</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>The EU is “a conspiracy to dissolve</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>those
borders”</b></span> and<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b> is thus a threat to</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>European democracy</b></span>. <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Democracy, </b></span>he
argues, <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>needs boundaries and boundaries need the nation state.</b></span></p>
<p>His book is a reflection on conservatism rather than an attack on<span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)">
<b>socialism or liberalism. He carefully examines them both, alongside
multiculturalism, environmentalism and internationalism, and<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"> extracts
what is good </span>in them while <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">rejecting</span> <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">ideological aspects.</span></b><b> Where
socialism</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>understands “the truth of our mutual dependence and of the
need to do what we can to spread the benefits of social membership to
those whose own efforts do not suffice to obtain them”, it is not far
removed from compassionate conservatism.</b></span> But, Scruton warns, <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>when socialism becomes “an attempt to revise<span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"> human nature</span>…it is a dangerous fantasy.”
</b></span>Indeed, the “confiscation of civil society by the state<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b> leads to a
widespread refusal </b></span>among the citizens <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>to act for themselves”</b></span>. This has
led to<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b> all the problems of “welfareism”</b></span> that have slowly become
entrenched in our society.</p>
<p>Scruton’s chapter on “Realms of value” should be read by anyone who
wonders what “British values” actually are anymore and what they mean
for a conservative. Discussing <span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>the role that the established religion
plays in our national life, he pointedly shows up the difference between
Christianity</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(249,203,156)"><b>and Islam, which does not distinguish between private
faith and public government. </b></span>As he writes, <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>“It is one of the triumphs of
Christian civilization to have held on to the Christian notion of human
destiny while acknowledging the priority of secular law”</b></span>. <span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>We must
render unto Caesar.</b></span></p>
<p>On<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b> marriage as defined between a man and a woman,</b></span> now abandoned by
all political parties,<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b> Scruton again makes the case for the ancient,
traditional institution, commenting that it is “the primary way in which
social capital is transferred from one generation to the next” and that
“the bearing of children and the preparation for family life live at
the heart of the marital tie.”</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>Take away</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>this norm</b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b> and the institution
“will no longer</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>be a bond across generations with the nurture of
children as its goa</b></span>l, <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>but a contract for cohabitation, as temporary… as
any other such deal.”</b></span></p>
<p>Scruton’s book requires a certain kind of reflective attention. I am
not sure my Facebook “friend” has it. It is always easier to declaim
rather than to listen.</p></div></div></div><div id="m_1674076278711564159DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2"><br> <table style="border-top:1px solid #d3d4de">
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