The New Inquiry – Redefining the Right Wing
An exchange between Daniel Larison and Corey Robin about conservatism and reaction.
In The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism From Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin, political theorist Corey Robin frames right-wing ideologies as impulses “to defend power and privilege against movements demanding freedom and equality.” These fighting words were taken up by Daniel Larison, writer and editor at the American Conservative, and their email dialogue is reproduced here, with some edits and informative links added.
Wow talk about not getting it, is an understatement, so the Tory right is tagged with Fascism, but the left’s chiliastic presumptions, say in Russia, China, Cuba, Cambodia, they got off scot free,. Going back earlier, who was right on the French Revolution, Burke or Paine, and what it would inevitably become. Burke was understanding of reform (his Javertian turn against Hastings of the East India Tea Company was a sign) but he knew that when you topple an entire society, Pandora’s box insues. He wasn’t prescient enough to see the immediate consequences of this, in the subsequent Continental wars. In this sense, Wehner and Kristol were much more sanguine about the current wave, than a typical
Tory even of the Disraeli stripe would allow for.More on that later.
About the Russian Revolution, same things can be said, the February one, as opposed to the October Coup, has more merit, butlike Laski put it, it didn’t go all the way. The latter is the reason, that Wells, and Shaw, and Stephens were so enthusiastic. , not to mention Reed, although he was ultimately consumed by the Tiger he was riding,