Referring to the many blog posts I have written criticizing what I loosely term the left or liberalism, a reader recently asked if I considered myself to be right-wing. The majority of what is called the right today is little more than a less-diluted form of the left. More often than not, left and right differ from each other in name only. In this sense, I do not place myself within the right.
I am drawn concepts like natural law, heirarchy, and organic unity and it is my view that abandoning these notions has not always yielded good results, but creating some sort of society resembling the likes of Saudi Arabia is not something for which I would advocate. The older I get, the more I am drawn to classicism and high culture, yet it would be false of me to claim I do not enjoy or see merit in some popular culture. Through personal experience and observation, I have found comfort in concepts such as localism and regionalism and have a high respect for true patriotism, which I prefer over vulgar nationalism. At the same time, I believe in respecting and valuing other cultures and traditions, but not in the perverted sense in which it is practiced by most people today.
I believe contemporary notions about individualism, egalitarianism, and liberalism are not as noble-minded as they seem and contain fatal flaws that are not always conducive to a rich and meaningful life. In addition to this, I have found most post-modern notions of social justice and social progress to be at best, misguided, and at worst, dishonest. This does not mean that I oppose or reject all liberal notions or ideas. Individual rights and freedoms are important and often worth fighting for, but it has been my experience that those who fight under the flag of individual rights and equality, especially equality, are actually quite totalitarian at heart.
What does that make me then, as far as sensibilities go? A modern tradtionalist? There is an oxymoron for you. Perhaps I am something like that, though the label strikes me as inauthentic. One thing is for sure, I immensely critical of the politically correct ideology that dominates the West today because I find it to be offensively iron-fisted and oppressive in nature. Essentially, this is what I refer to when I speak of the left. This is also why I would lump the vast majority of those who identify themselves as right in comfortably with what I refer to as the left.
I am drawn concepts like natural law, heirarchy, and organic unity and it is my view that abandoning these notions has not always yielded good results, but creating some sort of society resembling the likes of Saudi Arabia is not something for which I would advocate. The older I get, the more I am drawn to classicism and high culture, yet it would be false of me to claim I do not enjoy or see merit in some popular culture. Through personal experience and observation, I have found comfort in concepts such as localism and regionalism and have a high respect for true patriotism, which I prefer over vulgar nationalism. At the same time, I believe in respecting and valuing other cultures and traditions, but not in the perverted sense in which it is practiced by most people today.
I believe contemporary notions about individualism, egalitarianism, and liberalism are not as noble-minded as they seem and contain fatal flaws that are not always conducive to a rich and meaningful life. In addition to this, I have found most post-modern notions of social justice and social progress to be at best, misguided, and at worst, dishonest. This does not mean that I oppose or reject all liberal notions or ideas. Individual rights and freedoms are important and often worth fighting for, but it has been my experience that those who fight under the flag of individual rights and equality, especially equality, are actually quite totalitarian at heart.
What does that make me then, as far as sensibilities go? A modern tradtionalist? There is an oxymoron for you. Perhaps I am something like that, though the label strikes me as inauthentic. One thing is for sure, I immensely critical of the politically correct ideology that dominates the West today because I find it to be offensively iron-fisted and oppressive in nature. Essentially, this is what I refer to when I speak of the left. This is also why I would lump the vast majority of those who identify themselves as right in comfortably with what I refer to as the left.
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