CONSERVATIVE

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“the body in its entirety would become … an instrument of pleasure”. The sexual liberation Marcuse hailed was not a fecund liberation. As in Brave New World, children do not enter into the equation. The issue is pleasure, not progeny. Marcuse speaks glowingly of “a resurgence of pregenital polymorphous sexuality” that “protests against the repressive order of procreative sexuality”. A look at the alarmingly low birth rates of most affluent nations today suggests that the protest has been effective. When Tocqueville warned about the peculiar form of despotism that threatened democracy, he noted that instead of tyrannizing men, as past despotisms had done, it tended to infantilize them, keeping “them fixed irrevocably in childhood”. What Tocqueville warned about, Marcuse celebrated, extolling the benefits of returning to a state of what he called “primary narcissism”. What Marcuse encouraged, in other words, is solipsism, not as a philosophical principle but as a moral indulgence, a way of life. I note in passing that Marcuse was a college professor: How proud he would be of those contemporary universities which have, partly under his influence, become factories for the maintenance of infantilizing narcissism. A couple of concluding observations: In Notes towards a Definition of Culture, T. S. Eliot observed that “culture is the one thing that we cannot deliberately aim at. It is the product of a variety of more or less harmonious activities, each pursued for its own sake”. “For its own sake”. That is one simple idea that is everywhere imperilled today. When we plant a garden, it is bootless to strive directly for camellias. They are the natural product of our care, nurture, and time. We can manage that when it comes to agriculture. When we turn our hands to cultura animi, we seem to be considerably less successful. Let me end by noting that the opposite of “conservative” is not “liberal” but ephemeral. Russell Kirk once observed that he was conservative because he was liberal, that is, committed to freedom. Kirk’s formulation may sound paradoxical, but it touches on a great truth. To be conservative: that means wanting to conserve what is worth preserving from the ravages of time and ideology, evil and stupidity, so that freedom may thrive. In some plump eras the task is so easy we can almost forget how necessary it is. At other times, the enemies of civilization transform the task of preserving of culture into a battle for survival. That, I believe— and I say regretfully—is where we are today. Roger Kimball is Editor and Publisher of The New Criterion and President and Publisher of Encounter Books. He is an art critic for National Review and writes a regular column for PJ Media. This article was originally delivered as a lecture at the annual meeting of the Philadelphia Society on March 28, 2015. It appears here with permission. A Gothic view of Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire, England, on a blustery day. TILLIEBEAN/CC BY-SA 3.0 58 Summer 2015
The Alliance of European Conservatives is the family of free-market, pro-sovereignty parties in Europe. We are the third-largest and fastestgrowing European party. We believe in individual liberty, national sovereignty, parliamentary democracy, the rule of law, private property, low taxes, sound money, free trade, open competition and the devolution of power. www.aecr.eu follow us @AllianceECR
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The EUROPEAN CONSERVATIVE Issue 12
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Issue 12 Summer/Fall 2015 Andreas K
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at the perfection of Michelangelo
Page 7 and 8: The Politics of Separatism Alexande
Page 9 and 10: Free Expression in Poland Matthew T
Page 11 and 12: my faith in an economy the most, wh
Page 13 and 14: John was widely believed to be behi
Page 15 and 16: constitution as a “chain of royal
Page 17 and 18: C.S. Lewis pointed out in his book
Page 19 and 20: German naval code “Enigma”. Aft
Page 21 and 22: This became still more the case in
Page 23 and 24: The construction of Dubrovnik By no
Page 25 and 26: statute added—“for reverence fo
Page 27 and 28: A New European Referendum Tom Zwits
Page 29 and 30: Briefly Noted Admirable Evasions: H
Page 31 and 32: The End of Germany? Thomas Spannrin
Page 33 and 34: The Future of France? Pr. Edmund Wa
Page 35 and 36: A Critique of Modernity Alvino-Mari
Page 37 and 38: Roman Joch A Literary Love Roger Sc
Page 39 and 40: The Necessity of the Good Rémi Bra
Page 41 and 42: indefinitely long duration. As such
Page 43 and 44: Augusto Del Noce, Eric Voegelin & M
Page 45 and 46: (what others have called the ‘tec
Page 47 and 48: Caspar von Schrenck-Notzing: Conser
Page 49 and 50: eason why for decades he paid close
Page 51 and 52: oom”. He needs a certain Lebensra
Page 53 and 54: een supporters of autonomy, but for
Page 55 and 56: Spengler’s book, published in the
Page 57: future through its implications wit
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