Democracy Without Civic Virtue is a Dead End

[Russell] Kirk’s brief but illuminating reflection on “The Politics of T.S. Eliot” helps the reader understand more fully the conservative disposition. The life and writings of Eliot reveal the conservative’s distrust of “centralized power” in any form, be it under “capitalism” or “socialism” or any other ism. The destruction of ethics and theology by practical utilitarianism has caused the despotism of merciless and heartless politics.

We are told, repeatedly, to keep God and morality out of politics. Yet, as Eliot insisted, society is bound together by common religion and a common ethical outlook. Without the recovery of the ethics of kindness and compassion, rooted in the Christian God, Western society runs to its own destruction under “the cult of the colossal.” …

In looking over the basic essence of Kirk’s writings, Federici states, “Culture, not politics or political power, is the first concern of the conservative.” This too is Scruton’s defense of conservatism and culture. But we must ask: What is culture?

[We certainly see the evidence of this today. But conservatism also seems to be shifting to that position again, perhaps out of a sense of necessity, and in the process distancing itself slowly from libertarianism. — Ed]