October 2019 | Issue 7 www.theconservative.online

THEA QUARTERLY JOURNAL CONSERVATIVE BY THE EUROPEAN CONSERVATIVES AND REFORMISTS (ECR) PARTY

Jonathan Haidt Ben Shapiro Federico N. Fernández Jeremy Black Alvino-Mario Fantini

IDENTITYPOLITICS ISSN 2565-7062

9 772565 706000 IMPRESSUM TABLE OF CONTENTS EDITORIAL BOARD

6 HOW TO REVERSE THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF CENTRIPETAL FORCES THE CONSERVATIVE PULLING US APART Daniel Hannan MEP by Jonathan Haidt The Conservative is a quarterly Journal in print and online, sponsored the European ADVISORY BOARD Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Party. Arthur Brooks Roger Kimball Read The Conservative online at Professor Ryszard Legutko MEP www.theconservative.online Rich Lowry Dr Andrew Roberts Professor Pedro Schwartz Professor Sir Roger Scruton

MANAGING EDITOR Themistoklis Asthenidis 18 THE RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY SUB-EDITOR by Ben Shapiro Andrew McKie

ILLUSTRATOR 22 OUR PRESENT DISCONTENTS Michael Daley by Jeremy Black

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INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS REPRODUCTION RIGHTS: All content and materials 5 EDITORIAL: IDENTITY POLITICS 26 WE CAN CELEBRATE ANY CULTURE of The Conservative are copyrighted, unless otherwise by Daniel Hannan – UNLESS IT’S WESTERN stated. For permission to republish articles appearing in Please address submissions and The Conservative, please contact the Managing Editor at by Alvino-Mario Fantini [email protected]. letters to the editor to: 6 HOW TO REVERSE THE CENTRIPETAL

DISCLAIMER: ECR Party, formerly known as Alliance of FORCES PULLING US APART 29 COLUMN: FREE MARKET ADVANCES Conservatives & Reformists in Europe (ACRE) is a Belgian ADDRESS: by Jonathan Haidt by Kristian Niemietz EUPP No: 0820.208.739, recognised and partially funded by the European Parliament. Editor–in-Chief, The Conservative 18 THE RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY 32 THE DANGEROUS GROUP-THINK The views and opinions expressed in the publication are sole- European Conservatives ly those of individual authors and should not be regarded as by Ben Shapiro OF THE RIGHT reflecting any official opinion or position of the ECR Party, and Reformists (ECR) Party by Bill Wirtz formerly known as Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists Rue du Trône 4, B-1000 in Europe (ACRE), its leadership, members or staff, or of the 22 OUR PRESENT DISCONTENTS European Parliament. Brussels, Belgium by Jeremy Black EMAIL: [email protected]

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37 HOW TO BE A CONSERVATIVE IN A POPULIST AGE odernity is unnatu- perspective. The rights of indig- by Daniele Capezzone M ral. Its values – rea- enous peoples in Brazil are par- son, scepticism, the scientific amount, but try substituting method – are, in the exact sense, “Denmark” for “Brazil” and see counter-intuitive. Our DNA is how that sentiment is received. attuned to an altogether more We should be anti-racist, but dangerous and tribal world. we should also have a university We want simple rules of thumb admissions system that is actively rather than analysis. We like to based on race. And so on. divide the world into “us” and Daniel Hannan MEP This phenomenon, referred “them” – our own tribe or kin- is Editor of The Conservative. to by some political scientists as group, and that of the stranger. @DanielJHannan “the great awokening”, has come We therefore struggle, at upon us very suddenly. The 44 THE LEFT OFFERS A a genetic level, to accept that Students are now fre- phrases that we associate with RELIGIOUS FERVOUR IN A POST-CHRISTIAN ERA someone we don’t like might quently taught that the intrin- it – “safe spaces”, “trigger-warn- by Dominic Green none the less have useful things sic strength of an idea does not, ings”, “cultural appropriation”, to tell us. This notion – the after all, matter as much as the “micro-aggression” – were not in

49 COLUMN: CONSERVATIVE CULTURE basis, if you think about it, of identity of the person propos- use before 2015. Yet wokeness by Damian Thompson the Enlightenment – has to ing it. We are held to be defined builds on older ideas, especially be continuously drummed in, by race and sex. The feelings of what is known as postmodern- because it runs up against our a designated victim trump the ism – the notion that there is innate hunches. facts of a designated oppressor. no objective truth or, more pre- Hannah Arendt once wrote Consider this sentence: cisely, that truth is a product of that “every generation, civilisa- “Islam has a problem with gay power structures. A better name, tion is invaded by barbarians – we people”. How it is assessed will though, would be “premodern- call them ‘children’”. We arrive be almost wholly determined by ism”, for the idea strikes at the in the world no different from a whether the speaker is Muslim essence of the Enlightenment. new-born homo sapiens 50,000 or non-Muslim, gay or straight, Its growth in campus is the sin- years ago. What makes our soci- rather than by its intrinsic accu- gle most depressing phenome- ety different from theirs is that we racy or inaccuracy. In other non of our age. are inculcated with a number of words, instead of elevating In the pages that follow,

56 LEFTIST TRIBALISM counter-intuitive ideas. logic above subjectivity, we are some of the finest conservative HAS RUN ITS COURSE by Federico N. Fernández For three centuries and encouraging people to do the writers in the world turn their more, that inculcation was reverse. We are actively teaching attention to the phenome- 37 HOW TO BE A CONSERVATIVE IN A 49 COLUMN: CONSERVATIVE CULTURE carried out by schools and, them to think in a tribal way. non of identity politics, and POPULIST AGE by Damian Thompson above all, universities. Profes- Once we do that, of course, consider how to respond to by Daniele Capezzone sors taught their students to be consistency goes out of the win- it. What is at stake – for once 53 COLUMN: CONSERVATIVE WINE quizzical, to think for them- dow. Gender is a meaningless this statement is apt – is West- 41 COLUMN: CONSERVATIVE MUSIC by Iain Martin selves, to test new ideas. To social construct, but the right ern civilization itself. If we stop by Jay Nordlinger 56 LEFTIST TRIBALISM HAS some extent, of course, they still to pick your own gender is fun- treating people as individuals, 44 THE LEFT OFFERS A RELIGIOUS RUN ITS COURSE do. But there is also a growing damental. There are no differ- and instead categorise them in FERVOUR IN A POST-CHRISTIAN ERA by Federico N. Fernández tendency to subordinate reason, ences between the sexes, but we groups, we return to an alto- by Dominic Green merit and free enquiry to iden- need more women in politics gether poorer and darker past. 61 COLUMN: CONSERVATIVE BOOKS by James Delingpole tity politics. to bring their unique feminine Let’s not go there. ■

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PULLING US APART When we look back by Jonathan Haidt at the ways our ancestors lived, there’s no getting around it: we are hat is happening to “the remarkable fact is that tribal primates. W our country, and our the values of these numbers universities? It sometimes seem to have been very finely a few million generations seems that everything is com- adjusted to make possible the and tracing our ancestry, ing apart. To understand development of life.” from tree-dwelling apes why, I have found it helpful Some have suggested that to land-dwelling apes, to to think about an idea from this fine-tuning might be upright-walking apes, whose cosmology called “the fine- evidence for the existence of hands were freed up for tool tuned universe.” There are God. This would be a deist use, to larger-brained hom- around 20 fundamental con- conception of God, of the inids who made weapons as stants in physics—things like sort that Thomas Jefferson, well as tools, and then finally the speed of light, Newton’s James Madison, and most to homo sapiens, who painted gravitational constant, and of the Founding Fathers cave walls and painted their the charge of an electron. believed in: a God who set faces and danced around In the weird world of cos- up the universe like a giant campfires and worshipped mology, these are constants clock, with exactly the right gods and murdered each throughout our universe, but springs and gears, and then other in large numbers. it is thought that some of set it in motion. I myself When we look back at them could be set to different am not taking fine-tuning as the ways our ancestors lived, values in other universes. evidence of God. I’m simply there’s no getting around it: As physicists have begun to using it as a way to open this we are tribal primates. We understand our universe, lecture. I want to lift your are exquisitely designed and they have noticed that many attention up into the cosmos adapted by evolution for life of these physical constants and put you into a mindset in small societies with intense, seem to be set just right to that is awestruck at our animistic religion and violent allow matter to condense and improbability. And if I have intergroup conflict over ter- life to get started. succeeded in doing that, then ritory. We love tribal living For a few of these con- I’d like you to take that same so much that we invented stants, if they were just one mindset and apply it to the sports, fraternities, street or two percent higher or existence of our improbable gangs, fan clubs, and tattoos. lower, matter would have country. Tribalism is in our hearts and never condensed after the big I’d like you to consider minds. We’ll never stamp bang. There would have been an idea that I’ll call “the fine- it out entirely, but we can no stars, no planets, no life. tuned liberal democracy.” It minimize its effects because As Stephen Hawking put it, begins by looking backward we are a behaviorally flexible

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clock mechanics. They were So, how are we doing, as they dislike the other side, creating a new kind of repub- the inheritors of the clock? how much they think the lic, which would demand Are we maintaining it well? If other side is a threat to the far more maturity from its Madison visited Washington, country, or how upset they’d citizens than was needed in D.C. today, he’d find that our be if their child married nations ruled by a king or government is divided into someone from the other side. other Leviathan. two all-consuming factions, Why do we hate and fear Here is the education which cut right down the each other so much more expert E.D. Hirsch, on the middle of each of the three than we used to as recently founding of our nation: branches, uniting the three as the early 1990s? The polit- The history of tribal and red half-branches against ical scientist Sam Abrams racial hatred is the history the three blue half-branches, and I wrote an essay in 2015, and prehistory of human- with no branch serving the listing ten causes. I won’t kind... The American exper- Thankfully, our describe them all, but I’ll give iment, which now seems so Founders were good you a unifying idea, another natural to us, is a thoroughly psychologists. They metaphor from physics: artificial device designed to knew that we are not keep your eye on the balance angels; they knew counterbalance the natural between centrifugal and cen- that we are tribal impulses of group suspicions creatures. tripetal forces. Imagine three and hatreds... This vast, arti- kids making a human chain ficial, trans-tribal construct original function as he had with their arms, and one kid species. We can live in many to be what the Founding worst form of government is what our Founders aimed envisioned. has his free hand wrapped different ways, from egalitar- Fathers believed. Jefferson, because it inevitably decays to achieve. And they under- And how are we doing around a pole. The kids start ian hunter-gatherer groups Madison, and the rest of into tyranny. Madison wrote stood that it can be achieved at training clock mechan- running around in a cir- of 50 individuals to feudal those eighteenth-century in Federalist 10 about pure or effectively only by intelligent ics? What would Jefferson cle, around the pole, faster hierarchies binding together deists clearly did think that direct democracies, which he schooling. (From The Making say if he were to take a tour and faster. The centrifugal millions. And in the last two designing a constitution was said are quickly consumed by of Americans) of America’s most presti- force increases. That’s the centuries, a lot of us have lived like designing a giant clock, a the passions of the majority: Thomas Jefferson wrote, gious universities in 2017? force pulling outward as the in large, multi-ethnic secular clock that might run forever “such democracies have ever in 1789, that “wherever the What would he think about human centrifuge speeds up. liberal democracies. So clearly if they chose the right springs been spectacles of turbulence people are well informed safe spaces, microaggres- But at the same time, the kids that is possible. But how much and gears. and contention... and have in they can be trusted with their sions, trigger warnings, bias strengthen their grip. That’s margin of error do we have in Thankfully, our Found- general been as short in their own government;” he backed response teams, and the cli- the centripetal force, pulling such societies? ers were good psychologists. lives as they have been violent up that claim by founding mate of fearfulness, intimida- them inward along the chain Here is the fine-tuned They knew that we are not in their deaths.” the University of Virginia, tion, and conflict that is now of their arms. Eventually the liberal democracy hypoth- angels; they knew that we are So what did the Founders about which he wrote, in so prevalent on campus? But centrifugal force exceeds the esis: as tribal primates, tribal creatures. As Madison do? They built in safeguards 1820: “This institution will first, let’s ask: How did we centripetal force and their human beings are unsuited wrote in Federalist 10: “the against runaway factionalism, be based on the illimitable mess things up so badly? hands slip. The chain breaks. for life in large, diverse sec- latent causes of faction are such as the division of powers freedom of the human mind. I’ve been studying polit- This, I believe, is what is hap- ular democracies, unless you thus sown in the nature of among the three branches, For here we are not afraid to ical polarization since 2007. pening to our country. I’ll get certain settings finely man.” Our Founders were also and an elaborate series of follow the truth wherever it Data from Gallup and Pew briefly mention five of the adjusted to make possible good historians; they were checks and balances. But may lead, nor to tolerate any show steadily rising polariza- trends that Abrams and I the development of stable well aware of Plato’s belief they also knew that they had error as long as reason is left tion since the 1990s, whether identified, all of which can be political life. This seems that democracy is the second to train future generations of free to combat it.” you ask people how much seen as increasing centrifugal

8 www.theconservative.online THE CONSERVATIVE | October 2019 | Issue 7 9 HOW TO REVERSE THE CENTRIPETAL FORCES PULLING US APART forces or weakening centripe- overall. The economists seem In short, despite its other tal forces. to agree that immigration benefits, diversity is a cen- External enemies: Fighting brings large economic ben- trifugal force, something the and winning two world wars, efits. The complete domi- Founders were well aware followed by the Cold War, nance of America in Nobel of. In Federalist 2, John Jay had an enormous unifying prizes, music, and the arts, wrote that we should count effect. The Vietnam War was and now the technology sec- it as a blessing that America different, but in general, war tor, would not have happened possessed “one united peo- is the strongest known cen- if we had not been open to ple—a people descended tripetal force. Since 1989, we immigrants. But as a social from the same ancestors, have had no unifying com- psychologist, I must point out the same language, pro- mon enemy. that immigration and diver- fessing the same religion.” The media: Newspapers in sity have many sociological I repeat that diversity has the early days of the republic many good effects too, and With the advent of were partisan and often quite television in the mid- I am grateful that America nasty. But with the advent of twentieth century, took in my grandparents television in the mid-twen- America experienced from Russia and Poland, tieth century, America expe- something unusual: and my wife’s parents from the media was a rienced something unusual: gigantic centripetal Korea. But Putnam’s findings the media was a gigantic force. make it clear that those who centripetal force. Americans want more diversity should got much of their news from effects, some of which are be even more attentive to Gingrich’s desire for revenge personal relationships among polarizing things, too. Fair three television networks, negative. The main one is that strengthening centripetal when he took over as Speaker legislators and their families enough. But it is clear that which were regulated and they reduce social capital— forces. of the House in 1995. But in Washington had long been Gingrich set out to create required to show political the bonds of trust that exist The final two causes I will many of the changes he made a massive centripetal force. a more partisan, zero-sum balance. That couldn’t last, between individuals. The mention are likely to arouse polarized the Congress, made Gingrich deliberately weak- Congress, and he succeeded. and it began to change in political scientist Robert the most disagreement, bipartisan cooperation more ened it. This more combative culture the 1980s with the advent of Putnam found this in a paper because these are the two difficult, and took us into a And this all happened then filtered up to the Senate, cable TV and narrowcasting, titled “E Pluribus Unum,” in where I blame specific par- new era of outrage and con- along with the rise of Fox and out to the rest of the followed by the Internet in which he followed his data ties, specific sides. They are: flict in Washington. One News. Many political sci- Republican Party. the 1990s, and social media to a conclusion he clearly did the Republicans in Washing- change stands out to me, entists have noted that Fox The new identity politics in the 2000s. Now we are not relish: “In the short run, ton, and the Left on campus. speaking as a social psycholo- News and the right-wing of the Left: Jonathan Rauch drowning in outrage stories, immigration and ethnic diver- Both have strengthened the gist: he changed the legislative media ecosystem had an offers a simple definition of very high-quality outrage sity tend to reduce social soli- centrifugal forces that are calendar so that all business effect on the Republican identity politics: a “political stories, often supported by darity and social capital. New now tearing us apart. was done Tuesday through Party that is unlike mobilization organized horrifying video clips. Social evidence from the US sug- The more radical Republi- Thursday, and he encouraged anything that happened around group characteristics media is turning out to be a gests that in ethnically diverse can Party: When the Demo- his incoming freshmen not to on the Left. It rewards such as race, gender, and gigantic centrifugal force. neighborhoods residents of all crats ran the House of Repre- move to the District. He did more extreme statements, sexuality, as opposed to Immigration and diversity: races tend to ‘hunker down.’ sentatives for almost all of six not want them to develop more grandstanding, more party, ideology, or pecuniary This one is complicated and Trust (even of one’s own race) decades, before 1995, they personal friendships with outrage. Many people will interest.” Rauch then adds: politically fraught. Let me be is lower, altruism and com- did not treat the Republican Democrats. He did not want point out that the media “In America, this sort of clear that I think immigration munity cooperation rarer, minority particularly well. their spouses to serve on the leans Left overall, and that mobilization is not new, and diversity are good things, friends fewer.” So I can understand Newt same charitable boards. But the Democrats did some unusual, unAmerican,

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is what I’m calling the good Students memorize diagrams is said to be one giant matrix kind of identity politics. showing matrices of privilege of oppression, and its vic- Let us contrast King’s and oppression. It’s not just tims cannot fight their bat- identity politics with the ver- white privilege causing black tles separately. They must sion taught in universities oppression, and male privi- all come together to fight today. There is a new variant lege causing female oppres- their common enemy, the that has swept through the sion; its heterosexual vs. group that sits at the top of academy in the last five years. LGBTQ, able-bodied vs. dis- the pyramid of oppression: It is called intersectionality. abled; young vs. old, attrac- the straight, white, cis-gen- The term and concept were tive vs. unattractive, even dered, able-bodied Christian presented in a 1989 essay fertile vs. infertile. Anything or Jewish or possibly atheist by Kimberlé Crenshaw, a that a group has that is good male. This is why a perceived law professor at UCLA, who or valued is seen as a kind slight against one victim made the very reasonable The civil rights group calls forth protest from point that a black woman’s struggle was indeed all victim groups. This is why experience in America is not identity politics, but so many campus groups now captured by the summation it was an effort to fix align against Israel. Intersec- a mistake, to make us of the black experience and tionality is like NATO for better and stronger as the female experience. She a nation. social-justice activists. analyzed a legal case in which This means that on any black women were victims of privilege, which causes a campus where intersection- illegitimate, nefarious, or the healing process well words of the Constitution of discrimination at General kind of oppression in those ality thrives, conflict will be particularly Leftwing.” This in the Reconstruction era. and the Declaration of Motors, even when the com- who don’t have it. A funny eternal, because no campus definition makes it easy for us When Jim Crow was written Independence, they were pany could show that it hired thing happens when you take can eliminate all offense, all to identify two kinds of iden- into Southern laws, it led to signing a promissory note.” plenty of blacks (in factory young human beings, whose microaggressions, and all tity politics: the good kind is another period of necessary And: “I still have a dream. It jobs dominated by men), minds evolved for tribal war- misunderstandings. This is that which, in the long run, explosions, in the 1960s. is a dream deeply rooted in and it hired plenty of women fare and us/them thinking, why the use of shout-downs, is a centripetal force. The The civil rights struggle the American dream. I have (in clerical jobs dominated and you fill those minds full intimidation, and even vio- bad kind is that which, in was indeed identity pol- a dream that one day this by whites). So even though of binary dimensions. You lence in response to words the long run, is a centrifugal itics, but it was an effort nation will rise up and live GM was found not guilty of tell them that one side of each and ideas is most common force. to fix a mistake, to make out the true meaning of its discriminating against blacks binary is good and the other at our most progressive uni- Injustice is centrifugal. us better and stronger as a creed: ‘We hold these truths or women, it ended up hir- is bad. You turn on their versities, in the most pro- It destroys trust and causes nation. Martin Luther King’s to be self-evident, that all ing hardly any black women. ancient tribal circuits, pre- gressive regions of the coun- righteous anger. Institution- rhetoric made it clear that men are created equal.’” This is an excellent argu- paring them for battle. Many try. It’s schools such as Yale, alized racism bakes injustice this was a campaign to create Of course, some people ment. What academic could students find it thrilling; it Brown, and Middlebury in into the system and plants conditions that would allow saw the civil rights movement oppose the claim that when floods them with a sense of New England, and U.C. the seeds of an eventual national reconciliation. He as divisive, or centrifugal. But analyzing a complex system, meaning and purpose. Berkeley, Evergreen, and explosion. When slavery drew on the moral resources King’s speech is among the we must look at interaction And here’s the strategi- Reed on the West Coast. was written into the Con- of the American civil reli- most famous in American effects, not just main effects? cally brilliant move made by Are those the places where stitution, it set us up for the gion to activate our shared history precisely because it But what happens when intersectionality: all of the oppression is worst, or are greatest explosion of our his- identity and values: “When framed our greatest moral young people study inter- binary dimensions of oppres- they the places where this tory. It was a necessary explo- the architects of our republic failing as an opportunity for sectionality? In some majors, sion are said to be interlock- new way of thinking is most sion, but we didn’t manage wrote the magnificentcentripetal redemption. This it’s woven into many courses. ing and overlapping. America widespread?

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Let me remind you of as a computer scientist or a Of greatest relevance to our the educational vision of humanist. I was given many exploration of tribalism, he the Founders, by way of lenses to apply to any one writes: “Thinking this way E.D. Hirsch: “The American situation. But nowadays, stu- quickly divides the world experiment... is a thoroughly dents who major in depart- into an ingroup and an out- artificial device designed to ments that prioritize social group—believers and hea- counterbalance the natural justice over the disinterested thens, the righteous and the impulses of group suspicions pursuit of truth are given just wrong-teous... Every minor and hatreds... This vast, arti- one lens—power—and told heresy inches you further ficial, trans-tribal construct to apply it to all situations. away from the group. When is what our Founders aimed Everything is about power. I was part of groups like this, to achieve.” Intersectionality Every situation is to be ana- everyone was on exactly the aims for the exact opposite: lyzed in terms of the bad peo- same page about a suspi- an inflaming of tribal suspi- ciously large range of issues. Today’s identity cions and hatreds, in order to politics has another Internal disagreement was stimulate anger and activism interesting feature: rare.” in students, in order to recruit it teaches students Can you imagine a cul- them as fighters for the polit- to think in a way ture that is more antithetical antithetical to what a ical mission of the professor. liberal arts education to the mission of a university? The identity politics taught should do. Can you believe that many on campus today is entirely universities offer dozens of different from that of Martin ple acting to preserve their courses that promote this I began this lecture with problems get more severe, 1830. It is probably still true Luther King. It rejects Amer- power and privilege over the way of thinking? Some are a discussion of the fine- people get more inventive, today. And if you want more ica and American values. It good people. This is not an even requiring that all stu- tuned liberal democracy, and that might be happening hope, let me tell you why I does not speak of forgiveness education. This is induction dents take such a course. which is the hypothesis that to us right now. If you want think things are going to or reconciliation. It is a mas- into a cult, a fundamentalist Let us return to Jefferson’s human beings are unsuited hope, you need only put start to improve on univer- sive centrifugal force, which religion, a paranoid world- vision: “For here we are not for life in large diverse sec- this quotation up on your sity campuses, beginning in is now seeping down into view that separates people afraid to follow the truth ular democracies, unless bathroom mirror: “We the fall of 2018: because as high schools, especially pro- from each other and sends wherever it may lead, nor to we can get certain settings cannot absolutely prove that things get worse on campus, gressive private schools. them down the road to alien- tolerate any error as long as finely adjusted. I think this those are in error who tell more people are beginning to Today’s identity politics ation, anxiety, and intellec- reason is left free to combat hypothesis is true, and I have us that society has reached a stand up, and more people has another interesting fea- tual impotence. it.” If Jefferson were to return tried to show that we have turning point, that we have are searching for solutions. ture: it teaches students to Here is how one young today and tour our nation’s stumbled into some very bad seen our best days. But so Some college presidents are think in a way antithetical queer activist described top universities, he would be settings. I am pessimistic said all before us, and with starting to stand up. They to what a liberal arts edu- the cult. The essay is titled shocked at the culture of fear, about our future, but let me just as much apparent rea- all know they are sitting on a cation should do. When I “‘Everything is Problematic’: the prevalence of unchal- state clearly that I have low son... On what principle is powder keg, and they want to was at Yale in the 1980s, I My journey into the center lenged error, and the shackles confidence in my pessimism. it that, when we see nothing defuse it. Also, they are gen- was given so many tools for of a dark political world, and placed on reason. It has always been wrong to but improvement behind us, erally liberal scholars, deeply understanding the world. how I escaped.” The author Now that I have thor- bet against America, and it we are to expect nothing but opposed to illiberalism. Carol By the time I graduated, I identifies four features of the oughly depressed you, let is probably wrong to do so deterioration before us?” Christ, the new chancellor of could think about things as culture: dogmatism, group- me end with a few rays of now. My libertarian friends That was written by the U.C. Berkeley, is clearly mor- a Utilitarian or a Kantian, as think, a crusader mentality, hope and some thoughts constantly remind me that British historian Thomas tified by what happened to a Freudian or a behaviorist, and anti-intellectualism. about what can be done. people are resourceful; when Babington Macauley in her school’s reputation last

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them to stop interfering with be a giant safe space, and that more fun and fair. This is an their education. Once these there will always be a desig- important lesson; it is a cor- students stood up, support nated adult to resolve their nerstone of democracy. for the protesters collapsed. conflicts. Lenore has so many So please do not despair. Many people had been going ideas for how to restore child- Be alarmed—the situa- along out of fear, rather than hood to children—to give tion is truly alarming. But conviction. them the unsupervised time most Americans are decent, At Heterodox Academy, they need to become autono- thoughtful people who don’t we’re tracking these trends mous, self-supervising adults. want to give up on their very closely, and we are With seed money from Dan- country or its universities. putting out ideas and tools iel Shuchman, she has started There are many things we that help people stand up a nonprofit called LetGrow. can do to reduce tribal- spring, and she has taken a To play with another but with each new witch hunt, for viewpoint diversity and org. I serve on the board, ism, strengthen our kids, very strong and public stand, person, you must pay each aggressive shout-down, open inquiry. We’ve created along with Peter Gray, from and repair our universities. attention to the other saying that U.C. Berkeley a guide to colleges to steer Boston College. One of We—the baby boomers person’s needs, not more members of the liberal supports freedom of speech just your own, or the Left are willing to stand up and applicants toward the schools the reasons LetGrow is so and gen-Xers who fill this and will pay to protect speak- other person will quit. say: enough is enough. This is that offer more viewpoint important, and the reason I room—we have made a mess ers. Robert Zimmer, the contrary to my values. diversity. We’ve created mention it now, is that unsu- of the clock. Left and Right, president of the University are overwhelmingly on the And most importantly, an online surveythat schools pervised free play turns out Republicans and Democrats. of Chicago, has been con- left, but they are mostly lib- some students are beginning to can use to assess the level of to be crucial for the devel- But we can make up for it if sistently excellent. I have eral Left, not illiberal. My stand up. At Reed College, one orthodoxy and fear on cam- opment of democratic citi- we can come together, admit spoken with several other field—social psychology—for of the most politically ortho- pus, or in any classroom. And zenship. I just want to read that we messed up, and college presidents who would example, is quite sane. I have dox schools in the country, most importantly, we’ve cre- you a few sentences from change what we are doing like to stand up publicly but been raising the alarm about social-justice activists had been ated the OpenMind app. It’s one of Gray’s articles on the to kids, and to college stu- still feel that the illiberal fac- political imbalance and ortho- protesting and disrupting the a self-guided app that teaches importance of unsupervised dents. We just might be able tions on their campuses are doxy since 2011, and so far first-year humanities course for students about the value of free play: to raise a generation of kids too strong. But if a few more nothing bad has happened to more than a year. They called viewpoint diversity and then To play with another who can care for the clock presidents stand up, and if me. I have not been ostracized. the course an act of white trains them to engage with person, you must pay atten- after all. ■ applications to schools like The problem on campus— supremacy because it focused people who don’t share their tion to the other person’s the University of Chicago the intense illiberalism—is on dead white authors. They values. We have many more needs, not just your own, surge this year, then I think concentrated in a few depart- said the course was trauma- initiatives planned for 2018. or the other person will we’ll see the floodgates open, ments that are committed to tizing to non-white students. I also want to call your quit. You must overcome possibly next fall. political activism. When you They brought their signs and attention to someone else narcissism. You must learn Professors are starting to look at who signs the peti- chants into the classroom every who is searching for a solu- to negotiate in ways that stand up, too. At Heterodox tions denouncing professors day, making it hard for profes- tion: Lenore Skenazy has respect the other person’s Academy, we started with 25 for what they’ve written, or sors to teach or for students been sounding the alarm ideas, not just yours. [Gray Jonathan Haidt members two years ago; now demanding that journal arti- to learn. Many Reed students about what happens to kids goes on to describe the is the Thomas Cooley Professor we have over 1,400, evenly and professors objected, but when we raise them like veal, way that kids learn about of Ethical Leadership, NYU cles be retracted, it is mostly Stern School of Business. balanced between Left and professors from about seven none dared to do so publicly, protecting them from every- rules, when adults are not Right. We got a big surge of departments in the human- lest they be called racist them- thing including emotional present.] They learn in this This essay is an edited version members after the violence at ities and identity studies. Few selves. Finally, this fall, several harm. Answer: they ask to way that rules are not fixed of his Wriston Lecture for the Middlebury because that was professors dared risk the ire of Asian students stood up, crit- be protected in college, too. by heaven, but are human Manhattan Institute, delivered a tipping point. Professors this illiberal Left back in 2015, icized the protesters, and asked They expect that college will contrivances to make life on November 15, 2018.

16 www.theconservative.online THE CONSERVATIVE | October 2019 | Issue 7 17 THE RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY by Ben Shapiro So, what’s going on? Athens represents the Greek building a functioning civ- out of subjective feeling but Simply put, we don’t reason we use to investigate ilization and a happy life. out of a duty to a higher law. n July 2017, Pew Research had “lost faith in American have anything in common anymore. and explore the world. West- Those truths seem simple This principle is controver- I did a poll. Sixty-eight per democracy,” and another six We don’t share ern civilization is the only and obvious, but they’re not. sial these days; too often, we cent of Democrats said it was per cent said they never had a common belief civilization that has balanced For brevity, we can boil those seem to believe we can create “stressful and frustrating” to faith to begin with. We fight system, a common a belief in religious meaning truths down to four simple our own morality. We can’t. talk to political opponents; with each other over every- sense of purpose. We and a belief in human reason. principles: Human beings, it turns out, used to. We used to 52 per cent of Republicans thing: football, chicken sand- believe in something Those two ideas exist in ten- First, Judeo-Christian tra- are quite willing to change agreed. wiches, shoes. called “Western sion. But that tension built dition teaches that a master their morals based on con- This isn’t just a matter of So, what’s going on? Sim- civilization.” our world. plan stands behind everything venience. We’re all too will- partisanship. We don’t trust ply put, we don’t have any- Judeo-Christian religion – that the universe is a logical ing to crack eggs to make each other: as of 2015, only thing in common anymore. Western civilization was is foundational to our civ- place. Most pagan religions omelettes. A God standing 52 per cent of America said We don’t share a common built on two fundamental ilization. Judeo-Christian teach otherwise; they assume above us doesn’t allow such they trusted most or all of belief system, a common pillars: Jerusalem and Ath- religion posits that there are that the universe is a chaotic logic. their neighbours. And we sense of purpose. We used ens. Jerusalem represents certain fundamental truths place, without logic. Third, Judeo-Christian don’t trust our democracy: to. We used to believe in the Judeo-Christian religious handed down to us by God Second, Judeo-Christian tradition states that human as of October 2016, 40 per something called “Western values by which we form – truths that aren’t logically tradition teaches that human beings have the capacity and cent of Americans said they civilization.” families and communities; provable, but are vital for beings must be moral not obligation to better their

18 www.theconservative.online THE CONSERVATIVE | October 2019 | Issue 7 19 THE RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY

capacity to reason; therefore, USSR rejected Judeo- our telos was to reason. To Christian values reason was to become vir- and Greek natural law, substituting tuous. By investing reason the values of the with so much power, Greek collective and a new thought became integral to utopian vision of the Western mission: balanc- “social justice” – and they starved and ing reason and revelation. slaughtered tens of By balancing Jerusalem millions of human and Athens, the West was beings. built. Jerusalem and Athens meaning, that we’re wandering built science. The twin ide- clusters of cells occupying a als of Judeo-Christian values rock slowly spinning off into a and Greek natural law rea- cold universe. Without Greek soning built human rights. reason, we fall into fanaticism They built prosperity, peace, – the belief that fundamen- and artistic beauty. Jerusa- talist adherence to unprovable lem and Athens built Amer- principles represents the only ica – the Founding Fathers path toward meaning. rooted their philosophy We need Jerusalem, and world – that progress is pos- Judeo-Christian in Judeo-Christian values we need Athens. sible. By positing that history religion alone didn’t and Greek reason. As John We can come together build the West. We has a direction, Judeo-Chris- Adams wrote, America was again if we rediscover our his- also required Greek tory – the most glorious ideas tian religion obligates us to reason to teach us to founded on “the principles try drive progress. shoot for the stars – to of Aristotle and Plato, of ever thought, building the Fourth, Judeo-Christian teach us that man has Livy and Cicero, and Sidney, most glorious civilization ever tradition teaches that every the capacity to search Harrington, and Locke; the constructed. We can come beyond religious texts together again if we recognize human being is created in for answers. principles of nature and eter- Lincoln’s Emancipation of human beings. The Nazis the image of God. This seems nal reason; the principles on Proclamation, and Martin rejected Judeo-Christian val- that Western civilization is self-evident. It isn’t. For most reason to teach us to shoot which the whole government Luther King Jr’s Letter from ues and Greek natural law, worth understanding, restor- of human history, virtually for the stars – to teach us over us now stands.” Birmingham Jail. and they shoved children ing, and fighting for. ■ every civilization held slaves. that man has the capacity to Those principles ended Civilizations that rejected into gas chambers. Venezu- Only by recognising God in search beyond religious texts slavery, defeated the Nazis Jerusalem and Athens, and ela rejects Judeo-Christian each other have we moved for answers. and the Communists, lifted the tension between them, values and Greek natural law, beyond tribalism toward the Greek reason brought billions from poverty and have collapsed into dust. The and citizens of their oil-rich individualism that character- us the notion of the natural gave billions spiritual pur- USSR rejected Judeo-Chris- nation have been reduced to ises the West – and toward law: the idea that we could pose. Jerusalem and Athens tian values and Greek natural eating dogs. free markets, human rights, discover the natural purpose were the foundations of the law, substituting the values We need both Athens and democracy. – the telos – of everything Magna Carta and the Treaty of the collective and a new and Jerusalem. Without But Judeo-Christian reli- in creation by looking to its of Westphalia; they were the utopian vision of “social jus- Judeo-Christian religion, we Ben Shapiro gion alone didn’t build the character. Human beings foundations of Declaration tice” – and they starved and fall into scientific materialism is editor-in-chief of West. We also required Greek were created with the unique of Independence, Abraham slaughtered tens of millions – the belief that life has no The Daily Wire.

20 www.theconservative.online THE CONSERVATIVE | October 2019 | Issue 7 21 OUR PRESENT DISCONTENTS by Jeremy Black The British emphasis of episodes such as Magna authority from the House of democratic principles and on organic change Carta less important. Lords to the House of Com- practice. he constitution cha­ deigning to offer political- and on legal process means that The determination to mons. The root point was The British emphasis on T nges. That is a lesson ly-appropriate maxims while Parliament has keep government and peo- that the electorate came first. organic change and on legal of British history that oppo- retaining power, control and played a central role ple together and in accord, Far from there being an process means that Parlia- nents of the EU referendum authority for themselves. in this continuum, and to maintain domestic unchanging constitution ment has played a central appear to find difficult to That is true of constitutional but that is as part stability and build interna- somehow breached from role in this continuum, but of a cooperative accept. The cause and process change in many other states relationship with tional strength accordingly 1975 by referendums, there that is as part of a coopera- of this change is democrati- where government comes democratisation, focused on the extension were a number of Represen- tive relationship with democ- sation, the process by which first and the people second, rather than as a of the franchise in the 19th tations of the People mea- ratisation, rather than as a governments and institutions but that has not been how restriction of it. and early 20th centuries. The sures earlier in the 20th cen- restriction of it. In the 2010s, respond to the fact that we the British have seen their vote was an expression of the tury, including a significant there has come an accentua- live in a community in which history. Instead, in both accept this. That they were conviction that Parliament Act in 1949. Referendums tion of the tension possible the members have views and England and Scotland, a overthrown by movements must respond to the will of can therefore be seen as part in any system of managed, expect them to be heeded. long series of monarchs were in which nobles played the the people, and the vote was of a developing continuum peaceful change. It is easy This is not the history of a overthrown in medieval and major role did not make the means to ensure that it of constitutional change to present the referendum as society in which freedom has early-modern times precisely the political consequences did so. So also with the suc- designed to enhance rep- the cause of this tension, but been measured out by rulers because they would not and constitutional aftermath cessive moves of power and resentation and strengthen there were already multiple

22 www.theconservative.online THE CONSERVATIVE | October 2019 | Issue 7 23 OUR PRESENT DISCONTENTS uncertainties on other points. linked to parliamentarians Lords but also in the Com- the challenge posed to our The meaning and conse- all being full-time politi- mons, have been hostile to country by the demonising quences of the 2010 election cians, as opposed to the sit- direct democracy. The lat- of opponents and the over- result, and its consequences uation during the Victorian ter is obviously antithetical throwing of the complex in terms of coalition govern- Age. to the Lords, which with interactions of people, Par- ment were uncertain. More- Eager to assert them- its unprecedented size, fre- liament and government that over, Parliament was given selves at the expense of quent non-attendance, large makes for not only our con- an effective veto in the case government, it is scarcely number of Liberal Demo- stitution but our character. of the Syria bombing issue, a surprising that many parlia- crat members and anti-dem- How to achieve demo- decision that was completely mentarians, notably in the ocratic suppositions, is not cratic reform remains diffi- out of line with the constitu- only ridiculous but also cult, and possibly more so in tional practice. Those who are disturbing. The Commons, the more complex society of Thus, there was already damaging the entire however, is not much of the present. British conser- political culture, let a process of flux prior to the alone the workings an advertisement for repre- vatives have long been com- EU referendum, and this of government and sentative democracy. Seats mitted to a political culture was one in which some par- Parliament, are that vary greatly in the size of patriotism, opportunity liamentarians were keen to throwing away the of their electorate, a lack of and fairness, one defined by legacy of the past increase their consequence, determination to reform this national independence, the and the hope of the a process also seen with the future. That cannot situation, and a willingness rule of law, rights to property, Commons’ Standing Com- be the recourse of of MPs to slight the views of and a government that seeks mittees. Possibly this was patriots. their electors, let alone the to foster and further social electorate as a whole, create and ageist – that has helped cohesion, themes eloquently a situation that would lead poison the atmosphere. We offered by Theresa May when British observers to question surely cannot be happy with she became Prime Minister. the democratic credentials a system of politics in which Those who are damaging the of a foreign country with only results that please us are entire political culture, let such characteristics. valid and accepted. Not only alone the workings of gov- Establishing criteria for does that sap democracy, it ernment and Parliament, are direct democracy is not easy, also challenges patriotism. throwing away the legacy of but we have been doing it In Britain since the Seventies the past and the hope of the since 1975, and, hitherto, (2004), I had a chapter enti- future. That cannot be the opponents have lived with tled “An Ungovernable Peo- recourse of patriots. ■ decisions they actively cam- ple?” Little did I imagine that paigned against. that epithet should rather That, indeed, is the nature be directed to some of our of democracy: accepting the politicians. legitimacy of a victory by the In this context, and with other side. It appears to have the country threatened as it been lost since 2016, and this is by a Corbyn victory, the loss has been made worse by prospect of which troubles Jeremy Black the context of condescen- many Labour supporters, Jeremy Black’s most recent sion – variously political, let alone others, it would be book is Britain and Europe: social, cultural, economic, best if we could understand A Short History (Hurst, 2019).

24 www.theconservative.online THE CONSERVATIVE | October 2019 | Issue 7 25 WE CAN CELEBRATE ANY CULTURE – UNLESS IT’S WESTERN by Alvino-Mario Fantini The slightest expression of admiration for n today’s disenchanted No violation is too small for “Western Civilisation” I and degraded world, to them to notice. – understood as the speak publicly of “identity” Yet, at the same time, lib- combined legacy and the West’s “civilisational eral elites talk openly of the of Judeo-Christian inheritance” is openly to “civilisational inheritance” of revelation, Greek philosophy and court controversy. It’s not the “autochthonous peoples” Roman law – can only that such terms are of the Global South. It seems trigger a swift considered euphemisms for preserving and safeguarding response on the part the “racist” and “oppressive” cultural identity is perfectly of the “guardians of [progressive] structures left behind by the acceptable – as long as it’s of orthodoxy”. “Dead White Males” who non-oppressive non-Western dominate the annals of his- cultures and civilisations. embroidery formed over sev- tory. It’s also that such con- Its visual shorthand is the eral millennia. It determines cepts are seen as unworthy of African masks, Asian ceram- our identity, as well as our serious discussion. ics, and Persian carpets in duties and obligations. Barring something rather the homes of its prosperous This identity – as stewards politically innocuous like proponents. of European civilization – Krampusnacht in Austria or So why should the West’s should be a source of pride. the St Patrick’s Day parade in own civilisational inheritance But, instead, our elites have New York, expressing inordi- be the object of opprobrium? cajoled us into believing that nate pride in the social tradi- Why should one be expected it should be a source of shame. tions and cultural inheritance to fawn over the ruins of We are today obliged to be of the West can today be seen Angkor Wat or Chichen Itza, tolerant of adversarial beliefs as chauvinistic and rather but ignore the primacy – per- to the point of self-abnega- anachronistic. haps the preeminence – of a tion and open to others to the In fact, as some academ- tradition that encompasses point of personal dissolution. ics in North America and cathedrals in England and We are asked to move beyond Europe can attest, the slight- castles in Spain, Florentine old-fashioned parochial inter- est expression of admiration manuscripts and German ests and outdated provincial for “Western Civilisation” – liturgical hymns, epic poems concerns, and to be instead understood as the combined of Portuguese maritime brav- “citizens of the world”. legacy of Judeo-Christian ery and master paintings of Inspired by such global revelation, Greek philoso- Polish military triumphs? pretensions, today’s “social phy and Roman law – can That inheritance – which justice warriors” have actively trigger a swift response on transcends ethnicity, gen- sought ways to demolish the part of the “guardians der, language, and race “Western Civ”. Seeking of [progressive] orthodoxy”. – represents an intricate greater influence in academe,

26 www.theconservative.online THE CONSERVATIVE | October 2019 | Issue 7 27 WE CAN CELEBRATE ANY CULTURE – UNLESS IT’S WESTERN FREE MARKET ADVANCES

It is time we proudly reclaimed our inheritance, without fear of retribution or TEMPTING RECIPES FOR shame. VENEZUELA, BRAZIL, CALIFORNIA instead conceive identity as something based on more AND HIGH-STREET TAKEAWAYS abstract factors – such as by Kristian Niemietz shared values and common beliefs – then not only could the unique civilisational ocialists have an amazing commitment to a mar- the boardroom, and the mass But whether on the Left or inheritance of the West be S ability to cling to power ket-based economy. media, and benefiting from the Right, those enthralled restored, but the racialist against all the odds. That’s Any new Venezuelan the coercive powers of the by identity politics are really nonsense of the extremes why I’m not going to make government would start state, they have pursued an in thrall of a politics of misan- might be attenuated. a fool of myself by trying to from a terrible position. The abstract multicultural ideal. thropy. In their descent into It is time we proudly predict what the situation economy has shrunk by half In the process, they have tribalism and ideology, they reclaimed our inheritance, in Venezuela will be like by over the past five years. The sought more explicit recogni- have lost sight of a bigger without fear of retribution or the time this article is pub- currency is worthless. Short- tion of historical grievances civilisational picture around shame. Its story, to paraphrase lished. But let’s just say that ages of food, medicines and – and have lobbied for repa- which we really should rally. the American thinker Russell unlike previous anti-Chávez other essentials are endemic. rations for the sins commit- The way forward will Kirk, is the story of Jerusalem, or anti-Maduro protests, And yet: if the opposition ted by the ancestors of today’s depend very much on the Athens, and Rome. If we were this time, Venezuela has a Any new gets a chance to put that Venezuelan spineless oligarchies and elites. categories and criteria used to again hew faithfully to this much more united oppo- government would programme into action, the It’s worth noting an appar- to determine Western iden- tradition, not only will we sition. Their recently pub- start from a terrible worst aspects of Venezuela’s ent paradox: at the same time tity. If that identity is based remember who we are but we lished joint declaration Plan position. The economy crisis could be overcome quite that activists have sought to solely on materialistic aspects will recognise the exceptional Pais: La Venezuela Que Viene has shrunk by half over quickly. Hyperinflations have destroy the Judeo-Christian – such as the biological, eco- richness, power, and majesty of (“Plan Country: The Venezu- the past five years. The been solved before. The most currency is worthless. West because of its contentious nomic, or sociological – then that tradition. The West is the ela That’s Coming”) is a first Shortages of food, famous historical example is legacy, they have sought – in the result will too easily lead basis of our identity and the draft of what a post-socialist medicines and other the Weimar Republic, where, their own advocacy on behalf to the elimination of natural source of our strength. Any- Venezuela could look like. essentials are endemic. once the political will was of the victims of that legacy – distinctions and the imposi- thing else is a distraction. ■ Pulling no punches, there, the problem was ulti- to promote new rigid ethnic, tion of an artificial unity or they describe Venezuela as mately sorted out within a racial, and sexual categories. “oneness”. Such reduction- a “failed state”, and put the Dr Kristian Niemietz few weeks. If price controls This is the hypocritical ism is, according to the now blame squarely on Chávez’s is head of Health and Welfare and exchange rate controls at the Institute of Economic core of today’s politics of forgotten Austrian thinker, and Maduro’s “Socialism of Affairs (IEA), London. He were ended, supermar- st identity. And the great act Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, the 21 century”. They plan studied Economics at the ket shelves could fill again of injustice on the part of its precisely what characterises to “lift the system of con- Humboldt Universität zu overnight. proponents is that they react Leftism. It leads to nihilism trols that suffocates national Berlin and the Universidad Not since the election only to the outrages they – and, left unchecked, in production, [and] rebuild de Salamanca, and Political of Donald Trump has there choose to recognise. the past has given rise to the an independent judicial sys- Economy at King’s College been a social media hysteria London, where he also This selective, reaction- political death cults of Lenin, Alvino-Mario Fantini tem which guarantees pri- taught Economics. comparable to what hap- ary identity politics occurs Hitler, and Pol Pot. is the editor in chief of vate property and the rule @K_Niemietz pened when Jair Bolsonaro on the extreme Right as well. If, however, we were to The European Conservative. of law”. They reaffirm their became president of Brazil.

28 www.theconservative.online THE CONSERVATIVE | October 2019 | Issue 7 29 Kristian Niemietz FREE MARKET ADVANCES

prescriptions, such as new taxes specifically designed to penalise online retailers. However, online retail, entertainment and delivery services are now a part of life for most of us. It makes no sense to try to preserve the retail infrastructure we have inherited from the pre-inter- net age. Making conversions easier is a market-driven regeneration strategy. It allows high street premises to be put to other uses without politicians meddling with it. Finally, some good news is coming from an unexpected place: Uzbekistan. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Uzbekistan was one of the countries that strayed least far And indeed: you do not have Capital controls and Success in this area would not represent a substantial liberali- bit. More precisely, high- from the inherited socialist to be a “social justice warrior” exchange rate controls improve the Bolsonaro gov- sation of the city’s zoning code. street premises used as take- have been relaxed, economic model. As a result, to take issue with a lot of the the economy has been ernment’s image in the West, Regions with major away restaurants will soon they stayed poor, while other things Bolsonaro says. But opened up a bit to but it would do wonders for housing shortages usually automatically get planning parts of the region took off Bolsonaro’s victory was not international trade, Brazil’s public finances. have high levels of pent-up permission for conversion economically. the whole story of the elec- and legal protections The state of California demand, which is why one to residential use. Betting This is now, belatedly, tion. Two liberal, pro-market for private investors suffers from housing afford- city can only make so much shops and payday lenders have been improved. starting to change a little. Cap- parties, Novo and the Dem- ability problems about as bad of a difference. The addi- will get automatic planning ital controls and exchange rate ocrats, have also done unex- His main priority for now, as Britain’s. Like in Britain, tional homes may simply permission for conversion controls have been relaxed, the pectedly well, leaving them however, is pension reform, this is explained by a combi- get snatched up by people into office space. economy has been opened up potentially strong enough to and that will probably be his nation of restrictive planning from the surrounding towns, This does not exactly a bit to international trade, and tip the scales. And they may acid test. Brazil has one of laws, and a well-organised which maintain their build- sound like a free market rev- legal protections for private have a natural ally in Bolson- the most expensive pension “Nimby” lobby. ing restrictions. San Diego, olution; it sounds more like investors have been improved. aro’s main economic advisor, systems in the world, due to And yet, at least one city however, is a large enough a minor technical change in On the Heritage Foundation’s Paulo Guedes, who has been a low retirement age, gener- now wants to buck the trend. place. Hopefully, it will urban planning. But it could Index of Economic Free- dubbed “Brazil’s Chicago ous special favours, and rapid The Mayor of San Diego, become the spearhead of a have wider implications. dom, the country’s score has Boy”. Guedes wants to make demographic change. The last Kevin Faulconer, recently wider “Yimby” (Yes In My These days, politicians often increased from 46 points (out Brazil more open to interna- government had already tried announced that he wants to Back Yard) movement. feel the need to signal their of 100) to 53. tional trade, simplify its tax to get a grip on the situation. remove maximum building Even in Nimbyish Brit- commitment to “saving” One of the last strong- code, privatise state assets They started promisingly, but heights and density limits ain, planning rules are the high street. This is giv- holds of Leninism is finally and cut public spending. ultimately ran out of steam. in most places. This would going to be relaxed a little ing birth to Luddite policy abandoning that legacy. ■

30 www.theconservative.online THE CONSERVATIVE | October 2019 | Issue 7 31 spent on rectifying this social Intersectionality as an ide- overrun by Muslims. The injustice, by wholeheartedly ology is certainly unsettling, identitarians’ online mer- agreeing with the policies but to most people it remains chandise features everything suggested by social justice what it really is: loud, intoler- from polo shirts to stickers activists. Such a movement ant, and a youth trend. asking to people to “Defend is naturally set out to lead to But as a reaction to Europe” against the “inva- discrimination based on arbi- this ideology, a number of sion”. The movement shows trary principles. people on the Right have off a lot of female faces, by When Martin Luther resorted back to their own featuring gender-balanced King Jr said “I have a dream identity politics. It turns out videos and putting women that my four little chil- that if the Left screams “your in the first row in their pro- dren will one day live in a whiteness defines you” long tests. The goal is to break nation where they will not enough, there will eventually with the burden of old be judged by the colour of be those on the identitarian European neo-Nazi parties, their skin, but by the con- side of the aisle who’ll take which are heavily male and tent of their character”, he them at their world. Slogans unattractive to (at least) half surely didn’t mean to add: the population. “And in order to achieve Conservatives should Right-wing identity pol- be cautioned not to that, we need to demonise feel bitter, or even itics may be evolving, but another group of people victimised themselves just like its Left-wing coun- by the colour of their skin when opposing Left- terpart, it offers destruction instead of by the content of wing identity politics. instead of solutions. THE DANGEROUS GROUP-THINK Instead, conservatives their character.” should turn to classical The argument of divi- OF THE RIGHT The race question hasn’t liberalism and sion of the rich versus the by Bill Wirtz been as pronounced in Europe individualism for the poor, or the victims versus Do you think it is as it has been in United States. answer. the victimised, has been the legitimate that a Despite some radical feminists theme of destruction during Twitter user accused me oppose tuition-free higher comedian makes jokes about gay being just as unpleasant as and names such as “White the 20th century. One hun- A of being a “privileged education? It must be because people? It must their American counterparts, Pride” follow. The identi- dred million people were straight white cis-gendered you’re from the privileged be because you’re they remain an insignificant tarian movement in Europe killed by socialism in the man”, in response to an argu- upper class. Do you think heterosexual. portion of society. is most emblematic of this: last century. It was nation- ment about economics. I’m it is legitimate that a come- Loud protests in the UK, everything is hip and fresh, alism that caused the First disillusioned. I’m used to ad dian makes jokes about gay This philosophy doesn’t school blockades in France: ranging from the websites World War, which killed hominem attacks, but they people? It must be because only state that you can iden- these aren’t new phenom- to the banners, the music in almost 20 million people, used to be about my looks, you’re heterosexual. While tify with a group, but that ena. Every decade has had their videos and the style of and a mix of fascism and the fact that I don’t go to the ad hominem was previously a identifying with a group is its set of irritating people. their activists. No skinheads racism led to the Second gym or my way of speaking. last resort argument, this ide- not a choice. You and all of Although we’ve left the Ger- or tattoos. On the contrary: World War, which killed Over the last five years, we’ve ology makes it the key point your actions are inherently man Red Army Faction, the The modern identitarian around 80 million people. seen a massive shift towards of the rebuttal. In essence related to the collective judg- IRA bombings, and the Red wears fancy sunglasses and Swinging the pendulum an ideology that happily puts it means that the more you ment of your group. If white Brigades in Italy behind dresses to the point where Left and Right on identity people in groups. belong to an imagined victi- people are racist, then so are us, our century has started it’s tough to say who just politics is a dangerous game The line of argument is mised class, the more say you you if you are white. There- off as much more irritat- shopped at Calvin Klein and that will be paid by the lives fairly easy to grasp: do you get. fore, your existence should be ing than the previous one. who thinks Europe is being of the innocent.

32 www.theconservative.online THE CONSERVATIVE | October 2019 | Issue 7 33 THE DANGEROUS GROUP-THINK OF THE RIGHT

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Y Conservatives should be humanity, so they will be if If we turn our back on CM cautioned not to feel bitter, justice as a notion of they turn Left. or even victimised themselves the protection of the So a Twitter user accuses MY when opposing Left-wing rights of the individual, me of being a “privileged CY KYIV • UKRAINE identity politics. Instead, con- it risks falling into straight white cis-gendered CMY the hands of identity servatives should turn to clas- politics advocates. man”, in response to an argu- K sical liberalism and individu- ment about economics. alism for the answer. Telling a people on the basis of a group I don’t care. I get back to bystander that they are them- membership, particularly if it the core of the argument. ■ selves responsible for their own is as arbitrary as sex or race. actions, and in charge of their This goes as well for the major- own destiny is not only appeal- ity group as for the minority ing to them, it’s also true. group. There should never be People are individuals no such as thing as “social justice”, matter what. This doesn’t mean as it is defined by the political that you cannot feel close to Left these days. If we turn our your family, your traditions, back on justice as a notion of your nationality, or your eth- the protection of the rights of nic background, and neither the individual, it risks falling Bill Wirtz would an individualist deny into the hands of identity pol- is a young political commentator from the good actions performed by itics advocates. And just as the Luxembourg. He works with a certain group. What it does courts of fascist states were a the libertarian student network th th imply that you cannot judge judicial joke and a danger to European Students For Liberty. 7 - 10 November 2019 ECRPARTY.EU • @ECRPARTY 34 www.theconservative.online THE CONSERVATIVE | October 2019 | Issue 7 35 HOW TO BE A CONSERVATIVE IN A POPULIST AGE by Daniele Capezzone Now for us – as conservatives, as Atlanticists, as free t’s time to confess our official agenda. And so, every marketeers – the I intellectual sins: whenever election, all over the world, time has come to turn reality and electors smash has become a popular oppor- over a new leaf. This the mandarins of politi- tunity to take revenge against kind of satisfaction cal correctness, the priestly the political and intellectual for someone else’s misfortune can’t be caste of the “experts”, the old establishment. enough. mummies of the mainstream But now for us – as con- media (the same ones who servatives, as Atlanticists, as single day, you can see many failed to understand the main free marketeers – the time European Right-wing and events of the last two years, has come to turn over a new Left-wing political figures go but who still presume they leaf. This kind of satisfaction hand in hand, only interested can “explain” everything), for someone else’s misfortune in making fun of the electors, many of us feel satisfied and can’t be enough. without asking themselves even amused. And while we can cer- what is really happening. And OK, it’s a sort of schaden- tainly share the disruptive without realizing that they freude: they have been lec- part (pars destruens) of the are part of the problem: that turing and patronising us populist agenda, on the is to say that their love for the for years. And now, every other hand we should do status quo, their inability to single day, all over Europe, our best to propose some- put things in the right con- and from South America thing positive (pars con- text, has been the natural ally to North America, they are struens), something we can of the rise of their foes. forced to experience public build on, a cultural com- On the other hand, we humiliation from different pass. And – in a way – this must find (or invent) room (but equally powerful) pop- could be useful also for the for a positive and optimistic ulist and sovereignist forces. populist forces: if you have vision. Apart from anger and And they deserve this fate: to scream, being an amateur fear (which are already “occu- the more they showed off is an asset, but once you pied”), is there a space of hope their culture, their assumed have to make decisions, it and reasoning that a new gen- “empathy”, the less they were turns out to be a liability. eration of conservative leaders able to use these tools to On the one hand, we might fit into? We know that understand what was happen- should keep at a distance the conservative culture has ing around them. The needs from those who are only concrete proposals, good data, (not only the “rage”) of a new interested in bitterly attack- excellent platforms, but we lower middle class whose fears ing and putting the blame know even better that politics and reasons and emotions had on the populist leaders. This is about emotions as much as been too long kept out of the is really depressing. Every it is about ideas.

36 www.theconservative.online THE CONSERVATIVE | October 2019 | Issue 7 37 HOW TO BE A CONSERVATIVE IN A POPULIST AGE

We need a new narrative; We need a new may be convinced through crisis, with a collapsing and on holiday, and once a day narrative; we need a we need a new (and sur- reasoning and a nuanced expensive welfare system send a tweet, a note, and a new media strategy; prising, if possible) media we need an injection of political offer. There might and the living standards of 15-second tv interview. strategy; we need an injec- courage and boldness; be life beyond “identity the middle class that have It’s up to us to offer once tion of courage and bold- and, above all, we need politics”. been stagnating for years again some proper conserva- ness (Erasmus of Rotterdam, to find a third way If we fail to do so, we already; a weak institutional tive tools: first of all, to reach between appearing please, provide us with some as a part of the old will lose an opportunity, architecture; the EU itself, out to and keep in touch “reasonable folly”!); and, establishment and and we won’t be of any help seen (unfortunately, it’s with the electors who have above all, we need to find a being only spectators to the possible evolution of true!) as a sort of economic made a populist choice. The Daniele Capezzone third way (it is a charade, I of someone else’s several protest movements. “cage”; and, at the door, Mr present situation is testing has been twice elected as political leadership. an Italian MP. He has been know: but it is our charade) They have been making the Putin’s authoritarian model the limits of modern democ- chairman of the Finance between appearing as a part entering an unknown one. most of a “perfect” (that is offered as an “appealing racy. And this happens in Committee (2013-2015) and of the old establishment But we cannot prevent our- to say: disgraceful) environ- alternative” (don’t forget a Continent, as Europe is, of the Industry Committee and being only spectators selves from the intellectual ment in the EU. Consider that Russian propaganda where institutions are weak, (2006-2007) at the Italian of someone else’s political challenge of a “factual” polit- the following factors: an and the European leaders’ where the political system is Chamber of Deputies. He writes for the Italian paper leadership. ical offer, of electoral cam- immigration crisis which weakness go hand in hand). fragmented, and where – as La Verità. With the Italian The whole Western world paigns designed not only to the Brussels bureaucrats Populist leaders can very history tells us – democracy journalist Federico Punzi he is in turmoil. We are leaving “go to war” but also to reach have not been able to handle easily build on these fac- is not the default setting for wrote Brexit: The Challenge a known dimension, and out to swing electors who properly; a deep economic tors. They might even go governance. ■ (2017).

38 www.theconservative.online THE CONSERVATIVE | October 2019 | Issue 7 39 CONSERVATIVE MUSIC

ALL GREAT COMPOSERES ARE GUILTY OF CULTURAL APPROPRIATION Curating the best in by Jay Nordlinger art and culture in the dentity plays a role in are four.” It turned out that I music, as it plays a role he was including Mahler. in life. Some music is uni- How human it is to want Western world. versal. Some music is more to claim glorious others! To national and particular. include them in your tribe! Even some of that music is Gustav Mahler was born in universal. Who doesn’t like Bohemia, to be sure, and a good Slavonic Dance, for he spent his first 15 years example? there. But he belonged to The Czech Philharmonic The best the Jewish, German-speak- played two of them as encores musicians are ing minority, and he got to in New York’s Carnegie Hall. cosmopolitan, or at Vienna as fast as he could. They are by Dvořák, the least unconfined to the The best musicians are national and particular. Czech Republic’s most prized cosmopolitan, or at least composer. The Philharmonic unconfined to the national was marking the hundredth Jay Nordlinger and particular. It was said of anniversary of Czech inde- is a senior editor of National Artur Rubinstein, the Pol- pendence. The concert was Review and the music critic of ish-Jewish-American pianist, all-Dvořák, featuring his The New Criterion. He is the that he was a Frenchman in Cello Concerto and his Sym- author of Peace, They Say: ­ French music, a Spaniard in A History of the Nobel Peace phony No 7. Spanish music, a Russian in Prize (Encounter Books). His Are those works Czech? latest book is a study of the Russian music, and so on. They have ethnic or national sons and daughters of dictators: And it was true. Composers, elements, to be sure, but they Children of Monsters (also too, can slip on the skin of are also music, plain and sim- Encounter). He lives in New York. other nations. ple (and glorious). @JayNordlinger In Madama Butterfly, The next day, once more Puccini is Japanesey. He Receive weekly recommendations on art and in Carnegie Hall, the Phil- A friend of mine, a con- really is. And in Turandot, harmonic played a single ductor, was being interviewed he is Chinesey. And in The culture through a conservative lens with work: Mahler’s Symphony on the radio in Prague. He Girl of the Golden West, he is No 2, the “Resurrection.” mentioned the Big Three American-ish. His musical The Critic’s Notebook email newsletter. Nothing Czech about that, Czech composers: Dvořák, sympathy is astounding. Is right? Well, let me tell you a Smetana, and Janáček. The he guilty of “cultural appro- story. interviewer said, “But there priation”? No, he is guilty of Visit newcriterion.com/newsletter to sign-up. 40 www.theconservative.online THE CONSERVATIVE | October 2019 | Issue 7 41 Jay Nordlinger CONSERVATIVE MUSIC

face of their older European the like in it. Still, for most When asked, with cousins. This goes way back. of us, it is simply music, I a gun to my head, to name my top ten A 19th-century American think. operas, I always composer, George Frederick It has long amused me include Porgy and Bess Bristow, had a famous fight that many Americans who (Gershwin). It’s an with the New York Philhar- otherwise would have no use American thing. monic Society. The society for nationalism whatsoever, I had it in my mother’s milk. It means the was too German-minded, in any form, get all blood- world to me. he said. He had a question, a and-soil when it comes to rhetorical zinger: “Is there a music. They demand the include a piece of his in a Philharmonic in Germany for programming and champi- concert devoted to Ameri- the encouragement of Ameri- oning of American music. It can music, exclusively. He can music?” is a patriotic duty, they prac- refused, saying he wanted I have a question of my tically say. his music to be judged own: Is the music of Bach, One of my heroes in life on the merits, no mat- Mozart, Beethoven, and the is Edward MacDowell, the ter the nationality of the rest German music (or Aus- American composer who composer. tro-German music)? You lived from 1860 to 1908. For my part, Bach, will find native dances and An organization wanted to Mozart, and Beethoven – and Ravel, Dvořák, and Shosta- talent, and an appreciation of I have a question of sortilèges. Ravel, for his part, kovich – mean a lot more the great broad world. my own: Is the music loved American jazz. The to me than, say, Ives, Carter, There is ample Spanish of Bach, Mozart, middle movement of his Vio- and my friend MacDowell. music by Albéniz, Grana- Beethoven, and the lin Sonata No 2 is marked rest German music And yet, and yet… dos, Turina – real Spaniards. (or Austro-German “Blues.” When asked, with a gun But you can’t leave out the music)? Spirituals belong to black to my head, to name my top Frenchmen: Chabrier, for America, of course. But ten operas, I always include example, who wrote España, Yang, made an album called Marian Anderson, Leontyne Porgy and Bess (Gershwin). and Bizet, who wrote Car- 40 Degrees North. The title Price, and others made them It’s an American thing. I had men! Don’t forget the Rus- refers to the line of latitude famous all over the world. it in my mother’s milk. It sians either: Rimsky-Kor- connecting Madrid and Bei- They “travel,” touching hearts means the world to me. And sakov produced Capriccio jing. Jiji is a (one-named) and souls everywhere. George a few summers ago, the Sal- espagnol; Shostakovich pro- guitarist from South Korea. London, the bass-baritone, zburg Festival did something duced Spanish Songs (a set of When she plays, she’s as made an album of them. He rare: it staged a musical, six). Spanish as anyone. was born George Burnstein West Side Story (Bernstein). Every classical guitarist is Ned Rorem is from Chi- in Montreal. His parents had I found myself rather over- a Spaniard, no matter where cago. But when he was a immigrated from Russia. He come by emotion, embarrass- he was born. That’s because child, Debussy and Ravel knew that spirituals belonged ingly. These things are buried the repertory is dominated rattled his brain, and he has to him, regardless. deep, and will out. by the Spanish. A guitarist always been a composer with My fellow Americans How fortunate to have acquires a Spanish soul, if a French mindset. For him, have always been touchy the universal, the national he doesn’t have one already. there is no greater work than about their classical music. or tribal, and the blend of A Chinese woman, Xuefei Ravel’s opera, L’enfant et les They feel defensive, in the them. ■

42 www.theconservative.online THE CONSERVATIVE | October 2019 | Issue 7 43 THE LEFT OFFERS A RELIGIOUS FERVOUR IN A POST-CHRISTIAN ERA by Dominic Green “Identity politics” has distrusted “enthusiasm” in Merriam-Webster dates the collectivising of identity. always been with us. religion. The religious enthu- the first usage of “identity And we should admit that arlyle called the French Men proved Carlyle You could argue, and Carlyle did argue, siast, fired by the glow of politics” to 1979. Identity we approve of some forms of C Revolution the “third wrong, first by mistaking that modern politics personal conviction, sees the politics is a noun, “plural in identity politics. and final act of Protestantism”. the sham of Victorian race was only ever about Promised Land from “the form but singular in con- The modern nation state, After the revolts of Luther and science for the truth of the collectivising of Pisgah of his pulpit”. Like struction”. Carlyle might a by-blow of the first act of Cromwell, the revolt of Dan- human nature, and then by identity. Rousseau’s General Will, he have appreciated this emer- Carlyle’s “Protestant” revo- ton and Robespierre was, he falling for the semblance yearns to conscript everyone gence of linguistic ideal from lution in spirit, cannot func- thought, the final revelation of between dictators, both heat, they aspire to sacri- else into the long march. But organic life, for the factions tion without a strong collec- “Reality and Fact” in a Europe fascist and communist, ficial violence. When they Burke had also wondered if of identity politics are con- tive identity. Neither can an “perishing of Semblance and and the modern Caesar for cool, they harden into the the “prudent” mind, obliged structed from singular indi- innovation which stirred in Sham”. The old pessimist per- whose coming Carlyle had forms of tyranny. to choose which “errors and viduals, electing to take plu- the second act of Carlyle’s mitted himself an optimism. longed. Still, Carlyle accu- Burke had drawn sim- excesses of enthusiasm he ral form in the combat of drama, and was finessed The French Revolution should rately identified the twin ilar conclusions about the would condemn or bear”, politics. But “identity poli- into functional existence by be the last word on this dis- dynamics of post-Christian French Revolution. The might prefer “the supersti- tics” has always been with us. Burke in the third: the polit- tressing matter, “for lower than democracy. The passions of 18th century, cognisant of tion which builds to be more You could argue, and Car- ical party. The rational actor that savage Sanscullotism men politics were those of reli- Europe’s wars of religion and tolerable than that which lyle did argue, that modern of classical liberal theory cannot go”. gion secularised. In their the Cromwellian republic, demolishes”. politics was only ever about cannot translate his singular

44 www.theconservative.online THE CONSERVATIVE | October 2019 | Issue 7 45 THE LEFT OFFERS A RELIGIOUS FERVOUR IN A POST-CHRISTIAN ERA

inheritors of the old revolu- is a powerful vote-winner. The community of tionary Left. Disgraced by the Whether politicians believe virtue, a familiar phenomenon of reality of Soviet and Chinese in the rules of identity politics “Protestant” politics communism, and rejected at or not, they play the identity since Calvin’s Geneva, the ballot box by the workers game in the hope of perma- is what Burke would of the West, the revolutionary nently securing the votes of have called a “faction”, a collective device Left retreated in the 1950s ethnic or racial minorities, for dissension and to the natural home of failed and of assembling them into the disbursement ideas, the university. There, a “rainbow coalition” of the of government the old ideology of class war disgruntled. patronage. was refurbished in the rhet- All this explains why the orics of race and sex, then radicalism of current identity us are merely patronised. repackaged as “social justice”. politics is what we now call Identity politics, there- The community of vir- an “elite” affair, and why the fore, is a rhetoric of govern- tue, a familiar phenome- victims and consequences of ment, perpetually striving non of “Protestant” poli- #MeToo have been restricted to make itself a principle of tics since Calvin’s Geneva, to the elite spheres of educa- human relations. It is to mod- is what Burke would have tion, government and media. ern technocracy as Latin was constructions into social Our current identity The French Revolution led called a “faction”, a collec- The universities train the agi- to the mediaeval Papacy, and facts without collectivising politicians claim to massacres, dictatorship, and the insistence that everyone to be “resisting” tive device for dissension tators of today, so that they institutions. Conversely, the the remains or 20 years of war. This proof of and the disbursement of will become the bureaucratic has to have a political life is restrained irrationalist of resurgence of fascism the dangers of enthusiasm government patronage. The administrators and “com- to us. The Burkeian defense, conservative theory builds and “imperialism”. commended the alternatives: faction of identity politics munity” representatives of a studied inauthenticity that his individuality on the foun- They do not claim liberal democracy, free mar- choose the “superstition that to be resisting the is a twisted reflection of lib- tomorrow; two small groups, builds” over the one that dation of collective origins, remains of the rival kets, free actors. These were eral democratic politics. The and neither democratically language and territory. Nor schools of command- the common enemies of the family resemblance is close representative of their pub- destroys, cannot inoculate do you have to be an “inter- economy government, fascist falange and communist enough to make identity pol- lics. The media draw their against the desire to choose sectionalist” to believe that communism and cadre. They remain the com- itics the natural partner of staff from the same univer- the superstition that gratifies economic disadvantage and socialism, both of mon enemies of the legions of by destroying. And so each which fostered government. sities, and volunteer as a racial inequality can interact imperialisms of identity politics. This is not the only way supplementary bureaucracy, age must refight the wars of and compound each other. their own. Our current identity poli- in which government and educating the non-special- enthusiasm and faction. ■ So identity politics has its ticians claim to be “resisting” its purported enemies are ist public in the ideological moderate and radical aspects. of the early 20th century, the remains or resurgence working partners. Only gov- requirements of the patron- Our current problems are were the fourth act of modern of fascism and “imperial- ernment, whether by legal age system. The government, those of identity politics in identity politics. The fifth act, ism”. They do not claim to coercion or explicit force, can as a patronage system, needs the radical mood that typifies whose climacteric we appear be resisting the remains of dispense justice to society, the universities as a source the end of one of Carlyle’s acts to be witnessing, inverts the the rival schools of com- either in its collective sense or of patrons and the media as – the radical mood that Car- categories of the fourth act, mand-economy government, as an aggregation of individ- an ideological intermediary. lyle called apocalyptic, in the especially in substituting rac- communism and socialism, uals. And while the disburse- While the intersectionality of sense of the revelation of a plot ism with “anti-racism”. The both of which fostered impe- ment of justice to preserve the the institutions of education, point in human history. The real targets of this theatre of rialisms of their own. This equality of individuals is slow media and government cre- Dominic Green racial collectivisation of the virtue, however, are the ves- selective model betrays mod- and difficult, the adjustment ates mutually advantageous is Life & Arts Editor of late 19th, and the tyrannies tiges of the third act. ern identity politicians as the of “equity” between collectives patronage systems, the rest of Spectator USA.

46 www.theconservative.online THE CONSERVATIVE | October 2019 | Issue 7 47 CONSERVATIVE CULTURE

THE CREEPY ORCHESTRAL NOTE STRUCKBY THE SNP by Damian Thompson

he Scotsman reports that The BBC History website T Glasgow’s Celtic Con- tells us that the Declaration nections festival has been of Arbroath was “a prototype awarded £100,000 by the of contractual kingship” and Scottish government “to create that the American Declaration a new body of orchestral work of Independence was “partially inspired by the Declaration of based on it”. Both claims are Arbroath. Eight of the nation’s strongly disputed by scholars.

C leading folk, jazz and classical But that doesn’t trouble the musicians will be charged with M SNP, which likes its nationalist composing new pieces which history neat, with not even a Y The Scottish will be premiered together wee drap of ambiguity. CM government isn’t months before the 700th anni- demanding that the The composers will be MY versary of the signing of the Celtic Connections given “complete freedom”, says CY document next year. It is hope composers set its the festival. For some reason CMY propaganda to music. [sic] the project will inspire a Nor does it have a this prompted me to listen to K new generation of composers taste for genocide, Prokofiev’s Cantata for the 20th to emerge and create ‘extraor- though I suspect that Anniversary of the October Rev- dinary symphonic pieces with an independent SNP- olution. It was about as much ruled Scotland would a Scottish voice that is not be a creepy place. fun as the title suggests, written patronising or backward’.” in a spirit of sycophantic terror The Declaration of by an almost-great composer Arbroath was a letter written Damian Thompson who chose to end his exile in in 1320 by Scottish magnates is an Associate Editor at The America and live in Stalin’s to Pope John XXII, who had Spectator and Editorial director Russia. His cantata didn’t pro- recognised England’s feu- at the Catholic Herald. tect him from persecution, but dal overlordship of Scotland. @holysmoke it’s hard to feel sorry for him. That might seem none of the I’m toying with an extreme Pope’s business, but he’d been he was excommunicated. The analogy here, so I’d better be wickedly provoked. In 1306, careful. The Scottish govern- th th nobles wanted the penalty 13 - 15 December 2019 • GRANADA • SPAIN Robert the Bruce stabbed to lifted and Robert recognised ment isn’t demanding that the death his rival John Comyn in as king, on the grounds that Celtic Connections composers front of the altar of Greyfriars Scotland was a free and inde- set its propaganda to music. Church in Dumfries. For this pendent kingdom. Nor does it have a taste for ECRPARTY.EU • @ECRPARTY 48 www.theconservative.online THE CONSERVATIVE | October 2019 | Issue 7 49 Damian Thompson CONSERVATIVE CULTURE

genocide, though I suspect written when Hungary was question, I suppose, because that an independent SNP- a Habsburg kingdom – but someone has to choose the ruled Scotland would be a it sounds more like gypsified composers, who will be creepy place. Richard Strauss than mature “charged with” producing But let’s take a look at what Bartók. Stravinsky wrote music that is not “patronising Donald Shaw, creative pro- none. And Shostakovich’s or backward”. Meaning: if you ducer of Celtic Connections, nationalist music, like Proko- want a commission, get with has to say: “It’s very strange fiev’s, is state-commissioned the programme. that a country like Scotland, propaganda. The author of the Scots- which absolutely has its own Maybe there is something man article, Brian Ferguson, musical identity, hasn’t had in my analogy. Scottish nation- certainly is with the big symphonic pieces rooted alists still worship the poet programme: his “report” is in the folk tradition like those Hugh MacDiarmid, whose a press release. Scroll down, from Bartók, Shostakovich own household god was Stalin. however, and you’ll find a and Stravinsky. This project is Which big pieces comment from someone a declaration of intent to grasp “rooted in the folk called Eddie McGuire. It the thistle and give a sense of tradition” does simply reads: “Creativity being confidence to orchestral works Shaw have in mind? harnessed to the separatist Shostakovich was from Scottish composers. It’s inspired by Jewish, project!” about freedom, exploration not Russian, folk That must have stung. and intent.” music. Stravinsky McGuire is one of Scotland’s None of this rings true. despaired of finest composers. If you doubt Which big pieces “rooted in the composers trapped by that, go on to Spotify and lis- their national idiom. folk tradition” does Shaw have ten to his chamber music, in mind? Shostakovich was The Celtic Connections festi- in which formal mastery of inspired by Jewish, not Russian, val, though lively, is creeping composition and years spent folk music. Stravinsky despaired ever closer to Scotland’s nation- playing flute in a proper folk of composers trapped by their alist government. Check out group, the Whistlebinkies, national idiom. Which leaves Donald Shaw’s Twitter profile, combine to enchanting effect. Bartók, whose music, even at full of SNP ranting and boast- He could, if he chose, write a its most inaccessible, speaks ing: he may not know much mighty piece inspired by the with a Hungarian accent. But about classical music, but he Declaration. But my guess it’s rooted in the Western musi- could give Prokofiev lessons in is that he’d choose not to, cal canon, not “the folk tradi- toadying to political masters. because he can spot a political tion”. And although Bartók was I said that none of Shaw’s stunt when he sees one. a pioneer ethnomusicologist, he statement rings true, but And there are plenty to spot. collected more Romanian and notice that it twice uses the The SNP has always dreamed of Slovakian tunes than Hungar- word “intent”, which is hard a day when all creativity is har- ian ones. to square with its talk of “com- nessed to the separatist project. I suspect what Shaw means plete freedom”. Will the com- Now that it controls not only – and wants – is nationalist posers be free to challenge the the government purse but also music. That describes Bartók’s mythology of the Declaration much of the Scottish media, early symphonic poem Kossuth, of Arbroath? That’s a silly that day is not far off. ■

50 www.theconservative.online THE CONSERVATIVE | October 2019 | Issue 7 51 CONSERVATIVE WINE BREXITINFLATIONDEFLATION BRITISH WINE DRINKERS ARE TRUMPCHINASAUDIEUROZONE LOOKING BEYOND THE EU by Iain Martin

CLINTONPUTINFACEBOOKIMF he final straw was Union and the impact they T another speech by Pres- might have on price. In Brit- ident Macron. Jupiter was ain a vast industry of lawyers FAKEUNMACRONMERKELWEF explaining how the nations and trade experts dealing of Europe should order their with such questions has pro- affairs to align with his bril- liferated since voters decided REACTIONTAXPAYCERNGOOGLE liance, and in passing he had – almost three years ago – to another swipe at the naughty leave the EU. Mention tariffs Brits for daring to Brexit. and wine in the UK or any- INNOVATIONEXPROPRIATIONKIM “Right, that’s it,” my Relax, please. I do where near it and someone friend announced, point- not propose here will appear waving a spread- to get into the question KOREACOMPETITIONIDEASNUKE ing at Macron on the tele- of tariffs levelled on sheet showing that dropping vision screen. “Enough is wine from outside the the tariff of 6.5p to 8p on a enough,” he said. “As long European Union and bottle of Australian Chardon- as that homme is President of the impact they might nay will result in the imposi- have on price. NEWSDATABARNIERWEINSTEIN France, I will not purchase tion of costly extra checks at French wine.” the border and the end of the My friend is someone British economy and possibly KREMLINJAREDIVANKASYRIA Iain Martin who loves France so much is a commentator on politics the termination of the entire that he has holidayed there and finance. His latest book universe. CATALANBORISBLOCKCHAIN almost every year for four Crash Bang Wallop: the The question of tariffs or decades. He has criss-crossed inside story of London’s prices in general is immaterial the country in his car count- Big Bang and a financial to my friend, just as the risk revolution that changed the less times, spending a decent of some economic disrup- world is published by Sceptre. portion of his annual income He is based in London. tion post-Brexit was thought on staying in French hotels @iainmartin1 immaterial, or deemed accept- and consuming French cui- able, by many Leave voters in sine on the way to visiting expectation switched to buy- the UK who concluded that French vineyards, each of ing New Zealand, Chilean a higher principle, self-gov- MAKE SENSE which he leaves having pur- and American wine instead ernment, was at stake in the chased several cases of wine. of the French wine that he 2016 referendum. My friend Yet he is so angry with adores, and I adore. is running a one-man boycott the conduct of Macron and Relax, please. I do not pro- regardless of whether or not the tone of the President’s pose here to get into the ques- it costs him a little more, or remarks during the Brexit tion of tariffs levelled on wine he stands in the end to save a READ WWW.REACTION.LIFE process that he has against all from outside the European pound or two. Pro-market, irreverent, independent analysis daily from leading writers. 52 www.theconservative.online THE CONSERVATIVE | October 2019 | Issue 7 53 Iain Martin CONSERVATIVE WINE

This is not primarily Not at all, is my response, The British will never about money. Instead it is having tasted several of stop consuming a question of culture, man- my friend’s excellent New French produce ners, loyalty, and the souring World purchases. When – it is too good, and the friendship of friendship across borders. we had dinner recently we between peoples Presidential rudeness can drank New Zealand Sauvi- transcends transient have an impact. gnon rather than Sancerre, politics. In one sense the French the classic French product can afford to be insouciant. of the Loire. in sentiment and history, Figures published earlier When it comes to Char- and the British seafaring this year show that French donnay, I have written before tradition that made foreign wine and spirits exports on the joys of the wines of names familiar, and then the exceeded sales of 13bn Kumeau River as a rival to Commonwealth connection. euros last year for the first Burgundy. The winemaker It cannot simply be that, time. Sales are booming in Michael Brajkovich, New though. Mass consumption President Trump’s America Zealand’s first Master of of wine in Britain only took thanks to strong economic Wine, took over the fam- off in the 1970s after we growth. A quarter of French ily property in 1982 and set joined the EEC. wine and spirits exports go about steady improvement, The reality is that there to the US. until he was producing is not much indigenous But not all is well. Sales wines that are starting to be English wine to buy, so we to China fell because the ranked among the best in must look about and be Chinese economy is slowing. the world. Prices are rising as international. On the shelves Reuters reported that French words spreads and demand of their supermarkets and in wine and spirits exports to increases, but you can still wine merchants the British China fell 14.4 per cent last Sales to China fell the UK, carrying booze for relatively new political con- find one of the cheaper seem to like seeing a range of year, to 1 billion euros, after because the Chinese stockpiling in warehouses in struct, the European Union, Kumeau River bottlings for wines from a wide geograph- economy is slowing. increasing almost 25 per cent Reuters reported case there is a no-deal Brexit. is not the same thing as the under 20 euros. ical spread. in 2017. That’s an unreliable that French wine The stockpiling assumes the cultural and geographical Why bother buying a wine The British will never and frothy market. and spirits exports British will buy as much entity that is Europe. Like from New Zealand, will be stop consuming French pro- In contrast, the British to China fell 14.4 per French stuff, even if the many Britons he hoped and the response from those in the duce – it is too good, and the cent last year, to 1 Brexit talks result in a bitter expected that after a brief friendship between peoples have been a steadier market billion euros, after Europe where the instinct is of unflashy consumers and increasing almost stand-off with the French interlude the EU and its to always buy local on the transcends transient politics. concerned citizens worth 25 per cent in 2017. government. largest powers – France and basis that Europe is the best. But my friend’s valiant boy- being consistently nice to. That’s an unreliable I should add that my Germany – would strike a The British are highly cott is a reminder that sen- and frothy market. The UK is the second larg- friend boycotting France is friendly and non-punitive unusual in Europe in that timent can shift in a market est importer of French wine. not an extreme Brexiteer. deal with the UK. Macron’s sense, in buying wine from economy; consumers do have Some 1.3 billion euros of Amid Brexit fears about His brand of Brexiteering is sneering, and the conduct of France, Italy and Spain, power. That means presidents alcoholic produce made its potential disruption to of a moderate shade. Here is the talks by Brussels, came as although surprisingly little of countries that want the way from France to Britain in supply chains, trade bod- someone who likes Europe, a disappointment. Hence my from under-rated Germany, British to continue buying 2018, according to the Fed- ies told Reuters that as and its wine, a lot but who friend’s boycott. alongside wines from all their wine, and much else, eration of Wine and Spirit many as 200 lorries a day voted to leave the European Politics has poisoned over the world. In part it is after Brexit should try being Exporters of France. are crossing from France to Union on the basis that a the palate, critics will say. surely a buying habit rooted pleasant for a change. ■

54 www.theconservative.online THE CONSERVATIVE | October 2019 | Issue 7 55 LEFTIST TRIBALISM HAS RUN ITS COURSE Once linked to the tenets of relativism, by Federico N. Fernández the Left’s identity politics is now full of certainties in a way dentity politics has metas- siege. The accusation is that that would make the I tasised to the whole socie- the STEM field (science, staunchest Positivist tal body. For its very nature technology, engineering, blush. it has both promoted and maths) is not diverse enough produced a multiplicity of and “minorities” such as Another important muta- groups and “identities” under women, blacks, and Hispan- tion is related to the episte- different banners such as ics, are underrepresented. mological consequences of race, gender, sexual prefer- “All across the country the victimhood. ences, etc. Facebook allows big question now in STEM Once linked to the tenets its users to choose from 58 is: how can we promote more of relativism, the Left’s iden- possible genders. women and minorities by tity politics is now full of cer- Besides social media, a ‘changing’ (ie lowering) the tainties in a way that would place where identity politics requirements we had previ- make the staunchest Posi- has found one of its strong- ously set for graduate level tivist blush. And this turn holds is the university. study?” a scientist at UCLA has to do with the status of Naturally, the humanities laments. the “victim.” According to departments have become a In the United States, uni- identity politics, being a vic- cozy home for it. But they versities are full of infantilis- tim provides blamelessness, are far from the only one ing safe spaces and unconsti- moral authority, and episte- in higher learning institu- tutional speech codes. Some mological preeminence. The tions. Rochelle Gutierrez, even have “White-free days.” secular dogma of “believing a professor at the Univer- All these regressive inventions the victim” has two implica- sity of Illinois, claimed that claim to defend and protect tions. On a micro level, the teaching maths perpetuates marginalised and oppressed burden of proof has been unearned white privilege. groups. reversed. It is the accused “On many levels, math- At the base of college of a crime who has to prove ematics itself operates as campuses identity politics his or her innocence. On a Whiteness,” she explained. is the Ludwig von Mises’s macro level, the statements “Who gets credit for doing notion of polylogism... on or claims which stem from and developing mathemat- steroids. While the classic oppressed groups (ie, radi- “The next time some aca- of identity politics as its most tribalism coming from col- ics, who is capable in math- Leftist polylogic would sepa- calised individuals who claim demics tell you how import- dangerous cultural weapons lege campuses. ematics, and who is seen rate the thought processes of their representation) cannot ant ‘diversity’ is, ask how many will not be coming to an end If current trends con- as part of the mathemati- the proletarian and the bour- be questioned or criticised. Republicans there are in their any time soon. tinue, it is very likely that cal community is generally geoisie, the postmodern Left Any such criticism would sociology department,” says However, innovation and universities as we know them viewed as White.” multiplies the different kinds immediately be deemed rac- Thomas Sowell. Indeed, the the free market are going to have their days counted. In Hard sciences research of groups of the oppressed ad ist, sexist, homophobic, or an Left’s domination over aca- provide us with a solution a way, it could be that con- departments are also under infinitum. act of pure hate. demia and the predominance to counteract the grotesque temporary universities are

56 www.theconservative.online THE CONSERVATIVE | October 2019 | Issue 7 57 LEFTIST TRIBALISM HAS RUN ITS COURSE

Moreover, Jordan Peter- son, the black beast of col- lege campus identity politics, is currently working on an online university which he promises will “teach people to write, speak, and think.” As we can see, there is a lot going on right now in order to find better alternatives to higher learning. The moment the market finds reliable ways to acredit the knowledge peo- ple receive online education as we know it will be changed for ever. We will witness not only the demise of college campus EARLY BIRD REGULAR PRICE somewhat zombie institu- We will witness not identity politics but will also see tions, walking dead that only the demise the end of the Left’s monopoly move purely by the inertia of of college campus over culture. We are at the gates 250€ 375€ until 10th October until 24th October the past. identity politics but of one of the most transforma- will also see the end Which trends? For start- of the Left’s monopoly tive events since the invention ers, that the job market of over culture. We of the printing press. ■ the future is likely to demand are at the gates of a constant update of one’s one of the most transformative events knowledge and skills and since the invention of individuals will probably the printing press. change career paths several times throughout their work education part side is losing life. What is more, Sili- ground against the ideologi- con Valley companies have cal brainwashing. already stopped requesting There are already in place Federico N. Fernández college degrees of potential many online alternatives not is President of Fundación to go to university at all or employees. The reason may Internacional Bases (Rosario, be twofold. There is a huge to acquire skills with short Argentina) and a Senior Fellow pool of talented people who easy courses. The technology with the Austrian Economics have acquired knowledge tycoon and venture capital- Center (Vienna, Austria). He through non-traditional ist Peter Thiel himself estab- is also the president of the channels (eg, the Internet). lished a special fund to incen- Organizing Committee of the international conference “The But it is also plausible that tivise young entrepreneurs to Austrian School of Economics colleges are more and more skip or postpone college in in the 21st Century,” which perceived as the Left’s über order to start their projects will take place in Vienna in FOR MORE INFORMATION AND REGISTRATION PLEASE VISIT think-tank and that the right away. November 13 & 14 2019. newdirection.online/event/dubrovnik

58 www.theconservative.online THEAPA and CONSERVATIVE EP Parliamentary staff should not| Octoberapply for EP mission2019 allowances | Issue whilst 7 participating in ND activities. New Direction FPEU is registered in Belgium as a not-for-profit 59 organisation and partially funded by the European Parliament. The European Parliament assumes no responsibility for facts or opinions published here or during the Academy. CONSERVATIVE BOOKS

VANITY FAIR - William Makepeace Thackeray

Von der Leyen’s The eerie growth Responding to David Cameron Venice is no city by James Delingpole challenges in ECB power populism chillaxing in decline Ursula von der Leyen arrives in office The increasingly assertive decisions of Advocates for small government should Britain’s former Prime Minister is a man Venice is strained - groaning under with Europe in a state of disarray - Europe’s central bankers are a threat to begin by recognising the limits of their scarred by defeat in the Brexit referendum, the weight of tourism and vulnerable will the new Commission President democracy - decisions on monetary policy popularity, but they can achieve a great deal but in his new memoir he is far too hard on to rising tides. But there’s a case for be up to the challenge? should be returned to EU member states. as part of a broader conservative alliance. himself about the consequences. optimism over the city’s future. Walter Ellis p.3 Bernd Lucke MEP p.8 Daniel Hannan MEP p.13 Iain Martin p.14 Finn McRedmond p.21 In each issue, James Delingpole reviews a book which may not be

Issue #10 | October 2019 recent in its publication, but which conservatives should read.

A fortnightly Newspaper by the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Party | theconservative.online “Very good indeed, beats have to endure in contempo- Dickens out of the world,” raries like Dickens. Perhaps wrote Jane Carlyle to her phi- its most daring experiment is losopher husband Thomas, its almost complete absence BATTLE as William Makepeace Thac- of likeable characters. Hence keray’s serial novel Vanity its subtitle: A Novel Without of Boris Fair was beginning to catch A Hero. Andrew Gimson, the Tory leader’s C biographer, on the man and his fire in the Victorian public’s It does have a heroine of fight for survival p.4-5 M imagination. sorts, though, in the form

Y Until then – it was seri- Vanity Fair is indeed of the amoral adventuress CM alised in Punch magazine in a magnificent novel Becky Sharp. Becky is cyn- MY 1847/8 – Thackeray was just and a great, rollicking ical, manipulative, shallow, read, surprisingly modern CY a modestly successful jobbing acquisitive, deceitful and in its tone and style, CMY journalist, critic and author, and refreshingly free of treacherous. By the end – K “writing for life” to feed his the earnest moralising spoiler alert – she has even wife and three daughters. By we have to endure in added murder to her list the book’s close he was an contemporaries like of crimes against the social Dickens. overnight sensation, hailed by order. Sometimes you root Charlotte Brontë as “an intel- for her, sometimes you lect profounder and more James Delingpole don’t, but you’re never in any Photo: Xander Heinl - Getty Images Heinl - Getty Xander Photo: unique than his contempo- is a conservative columnist doubt where she is coming and novelist who has written raries have yet recognised”, from. Born the daughter of for publications including the hugely sought after by soci- Daily Mail, Daily Express, The an impoverished artist and ety, and was subsequently an French dancer, Becky has p.23 p.20 p.3 Eli Hazan Peter Lundgren MEP Dr Roberts Zīle MEP Janet Daley Times, The Daily Telegraph, THE THIS TIME WISHFUL WHY YOUNG I’M VOTING PEOPLE, LIKE MAGICIAN NEXT WEEKEND IN THINKING So, how did this happen? How is EUROSCEPTIC THE YOUNGER ME, Next weekend in it possible that despite everything We should do everything we can to VERSUS ECR Party ECR Group Next weekend in described in the international oppose the use of institutions that KEEP FALLING th media, the Israeli public trusts should be neutral in the elections New Direction Academy in Granada, Spain FOR TROTSKY TRAINING ACADEMY - MADEIRA COMMITTEE CHAIRS APPOINTED New Direction 10 Anniversary Dinner p.22 p.20 ACRE Summer Gala Dinner p.23 p.9 p.20 p.9 REALITY p.22 KYIV BORDEAUX Netanyahu over and over again? for party political purposes. p.13 p.15 influence on Tolstoy’s War and The Spectator. He is the chameleon social skills, Issue #9 | September 2019 Issue #8 | July 2019 Issue #7 | May 2019 Issue #6 | May 2019 Issue #5 | April 2019

A fortnightly Newspaper by the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Party | theconservative.online A fortnightly Newspaper by the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe (ACRE) | theconservative.online A fortnightly Newspaper by the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe (ACRE) | theconservative.online A fortnightly Newspaper by the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe (ACRE) | theconservative.online A fortnightly Newspaper by the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe (ACRE) | theconservative.online and Peace. also the executive editor of accomplishments and aspi-

ECR Group ECR Group Brexit MEPs HOLD CONSERVATIVES EU27 MEETING CONTINUE TO PREPARING ON IRAN Shutterstock.com Photo: GROW FOR A “NO DEAL” ECR MEPs Bert Jan Ruissen and When the ECR Group was founded European countries are pre- Breitbart London. His latest Anna Fotyga hosted a confer- in 2009, many critics said that it paring for a “no deal” on Brexit.

ence on ‘Iran, Europe and the would not survive on. They said it of Poland of the Prime Minister Chancellery The Conservative has looked at United States’ at the European was impossible to split from the the preparations taking place in Parliament in Bruss els where THE OFFICIAL EPP. However it managed to sur- diff erent countries. p.5 Vanity Fair is indeed a rations of a proper English Dr. Dan Schueftan from the Uni- vive and grow, and became the versity of Haifa was the main third largest group in the Euro- guest speaker. p.3 pean Parliament. p.3 Grzegorz Kuczyński NATO MUST Poland OPPOSITION Richard Milsom CONTINUE TO book is Watermelons. POLAND BOOSTS by Jan Zahradil MEP, President of ACRE WE MUST ACT BE FLEXIBLE TRANSATLANTIC NOW TO SAVE TO SURVIVE RELATIONS THE BALTIC As NATO turns 70, a new report from Poland addresses what The Baltic takes on a further Both Poland and the United States the future holds for the Alliance are working towards a deepen- For the next five years, we aim to serve as the importance when it comes to magnificent novel and a and how best to tackle the main lady. But not, unfortu- security. As we all know, Russia ing of relations in the face of the peoples voice, acting as a counter balance between threat posed to Central Europe is a Baltic state. It’s largest naval ongoing threat from Russia – a by Russia. p.8 threat mostly ignored by Western those who want a federal Europe, and those who ports are on to the Baltic. p.8 Europeans. p.4 want to destroy the Union. We will continue to @jamesdelingpole Profile defend the view that Europe works best when it Profile does less, but it does it better. VALDEMAR Viktor Karvatskyy ELISABETTA Third Maidan: GARDINI TOMAŠEVSKI From Vilnius to the Nation AN ELECTORAL High-profile EPP MEP from NATO TURNS 70 p.10 Forza Italia, joins ECR p.10 REVOLUTION ith the elec- power handed to those who which would have create a in a position to act as the offi- comes as a result of keeping he North Atlantic Treaty security for many countries on the periph- policy, to reflect the changing dynam- The annexation of Crimea demon- Spitzenkandidat great, rollicking read, surpris- nately, the financial security Forr the first time of Ukrainian tion now out of want to use it to build a federal more business friendly Europe. cial opposition in the European power as close to the people as panish voters went to increased number of seats. direction of Spain’s economy, three parties have managed party. This government found Organisation celebrated its eries of Europe. With the support of the ics of its members. From welcoming strated the need for NATO to adapt the way, and the Europe. A coalition that will That would have put the sin- Parliament. We’ll hold this new possible. And we remain com- the polls on Sunday The Socialists are set to return as well as debate about the to secure 40% of the popular itself in difficulty following 70th Anniversary this month. Americans and Canadians, NATO offers former rivals, who have become some its strategy when dealing with the Anna Fotyga MEP history, a single party won enough JAN ZAHRADIL political groups be led from the left, with any gle market, rather than social coalition to account, and ensure mitted to the view that our 28 April to decide the with an increased majority. future direction of Spanish vote between them, showing the controversial referendum Jan Zahradil For seven decades, NATO a sense of safety for those living within in the alliances closest allies, to the post- Russia, as for too long they had been mandates to govern on their LEADERSHIP IN EUROPE nowW establishing themselves, we voting majority dependent on policy, back at the centre of the that they do not use their new strength comes from a willing- Jan Zahradil was ACRE’s can- future direction of These elections were per- culture. Elements of the cul- a promising future for Spain’s in Catalonia. however a vote Thas stood at the forefront of Euro- its borders. And even as that frontier has cold war pivot that has seen a refocus- complaisant. NATO AT 70 own with 254 seats of which CAMPAIGN “Together we continue to over- Last week, Ursula von der Leyen, change for Europe. It will therefore be Commissioner who before taking office also submit a series of written ques- can now talk with some clarity the support of the Greens and European Union. That would majority to take power away ness to work together on issues didate for the Presidency of the Sthe country. These elections haps the most fiercely fought ture war that has been taking conservative movement. of no confidence in late 2018 pean defence and guaranteed a lasting expanded Eastwards, the value of NATO ing of efforts on counter terrorism and Not only must the Alliance remain vig- President-designate of the next important for her to have a team around in their designated role must pass tions to the candidates which must be 226 came from single member about what the next five years the socialists. As a result we have opened Europe up to new from member states. Equally of common interest, rather than Commission, throughout the mark the first time that Vox in recent memory, highlight place in other countries have Spain’s political situation forced them out of power and DIARY Part V. peace that many didn’t think would sur- membership has not been lost. jihadism. ilant, it must also upgrade its arsenal to come the most serious security European Commission, released her that she can rely on. In this issue, The through a series of scrutiny steps in the responded to at least 48 hours before constituencies. p.5 will bring. Especially now that will see a leftist agenda pushed opportunities by pushing for we will work constructively being dragged into programmes course of the campaign his team have entered the Cortes Gene- the divide within the country. been seen in this election. has been turbulent over recent saw the Socialists come into vive in the years that proceeded Sec- The Alliance has undergone huge geo- maintain a sufficient defensive posture. challenges in a generation: Russia’s Berlin, Munich, Brussels p.16 details of the policy portfolio that Conservative hosts a special feature that European Parliament. the start of their hearing. we have seen what the new coa- more and more in the Euro- further free trade agreements where we can to deliver legis- we don’t want. wrote a number of Campaign Dia- rales. And have seen a decline The snap elections, called in What has also made this years, in 2016 snap election power with a minority gov- ond World War. Yet despite its success, graphic shifts. In the beginning NATO An Old Threat NATO ought to invest more in heavy equip- aggression in and around Europe, each commissioner is set to be looks in detail at the candidate Commi- Each candidate Commissioner must Following each hearing the Commit- lition will look like. pean Parliament. with the rest of the world. lation that adds value for our And so, for the next five years, ries as he travelled across Europe in the number of seats for the February, were the result of the election different is the fact was called after the Decem- ernment. The new Socialist now more than ever, we need remind- was focused on Western Europe and However, since the Russian invasion ment and armaments that will minimize terrorism and instability in our allocated. ssioners, their strengths, weaknesses and first submit to the parliament a miss- tees responsible will evaluate the perfor- Conservative Music To us, we believe that the For our part, we would have We regret the decision that citizens. we aim to serve as the peoples spreading the conservative mes- conservative Peoples Party, Socialist government of Pedro that three centre right par- ber 2015 elections failed to government, lacking a demo- ing of the importance of the trans-Atlan- bridging the divide between Atlantic of Georgia in 2008 and the annexation the threat posed by Russia’s latest gener- southern neighbourhood, as well as backgrounds. Some are familiar faces, ion letter and declarations of finan- mance and suitability before submitting new Commission Majority liked Europe to move in a dif- has been made, and most of all Our mission is, as it always voice, acting as a counter bal- sage, for the first time they are all who’s leader Pablo Casado, Sanchez failing to pass a bud- ties have contested the elec- deliver a majority to any party cratic mandate resolved to call Conservative Icons tic relationship. With a resurgent Russia, partners, bringing together 12 member of Crimea in 2014, NATO has shifted ations of combat aircraft and anti-sub- very real threats from cyber-attacks he von Der Leyen Commission will others are brand new. Some are old, and cial interests, together with their CVs, a letter of recommendation to the Parlia- Is it OK to enjoy is a lost opportunity, not just ferent direction over the next we feel sorry for the voters of has been since we were founded ance between those who want a has taken the party in a more get through the Parliament. tion. The conservative Vox, or coalition. Mariano Rajoy a general election, which they growing threat of terrorism and popu- states. Today it’s an Alliance that spans its focus from the War on Terror back marine weapons, as well as finding smart p.13 available in one place. p.16 FRIEDRICH and missile proliferation.” take over on the 1st of November, a another is the youngest ever nominated. before they are subject to a three hour ment’s Conference of Committee Chairs, MARXIST MUSIC for us, but for the people of five years. We were ready and those centre-right and conser- ten years ago, to ensure that the federal Europe, and those who traditional direction. The Cit- This election has been nota- the formerly governing Peo- and the Peoples Party man- won. They will now have to list attempts to either divide, scrap or the entire continent, with the collective to countering the threat from Russia. ways to work around their current salami day after the expected exit date of And for the first time ever, the Commission hearing in the relevant Parliamen- before the hearings are declared closed. by Jay Nordlinger Europe who voted for a leaner willing, as an established polit- vative parties who have been European Union remains a good want to destroy the Union. We izens Party of Albert Rivera ble for a campaign focused on ples Party and the classically aged to form a coalition gov- form a coalition with the far- replace the Alliance, support for NATO is might of 29 countries. From the USA to The 29 Member States have become tactics. The NATO allies need to try their ingly modern in its tone and HAYEK to keep herself in the style T Conservative Icons by Roger Kimball the United Kingdom. The former German is close to a full gender balance. tary Committee(s), which will take Then on Wednesday 23rd October, Par- and more streamlined Euro- ical movement, to work with just as let down by it. However servant to its member states, will continue to defend the view came in third place, with an public finances and the future liberal Citizens party. These ernment with the Citizens left and regionalist parties. Ŷ more important than ever before. Poland, Canada to Croatia. resolute in their commitment to effi- utmost to show Russia that its nuclear Jan Zahradil Defence Minister and mother of seven will The EU treaties stipulate that each place between 30th September and 8th liament votes on whether to endorse the What if there were a piece called pean Union. The establish- the European Peoples Party to for this decision also creates and to the people that live in that Europe works best when it The NATO Alliance has stood for the Over the last 70 years, NATO has ciently deter Moscow, and to further blackmail is useless and that they will not JAMES Ask anyone: the Industrial take over the Berlaymont at a time of great EU Member State can nominate a October. Parliament’s Committees can whole college. CONTINUED ON p.9 The Führer Dances? No one would ment of the new coalition sees deliver a centre-right majority, an opportunity. We will now be them. That good governance does less, but it does it better. Ŷ longest time as a beacon of freedom and also undergone several huge shifts in strengthen the Alliance’s eastern flank. bow down to bullies. CONTINUED ON p.12 CAMPAIGN rd th Revolution is a stigma that no sit still for it, right? p.21 FITZJAMES From the 23 to 26 of May, 500 million European will head to the polls in the second largest amount of societal amelioration DIARY Part IV. STEPHEN democratic election in the world. These elections will determine the future of not just their can remove. p.18 p.8 CONTINUED ON p.17 by Roger Kimball SPECIAL FEATURE Freedom of religion and belief, by Tomasz G. Grosse Blue Green Summit, Road to When the Green Conservative Books THE ECR HAS countries, but their entire continent. They must choose what sort of Europe their children a ON DEMOCRACY IN EUROPE The activities of the European Europe p.18 European Union, for example, daily bear USA Ready for Trade Homer’s PLENTY OF grandchildren grow up in, a Europe of free and independent Nation States working together TRADE Ambassador Sondland’s Remarks at the European Parliament Conservative Music U institutions are increasingly the European Union (CJEU) as well as its Revolution comes Parliament witness to the hopeless muddle of restricting democratic practices policy of extending the scope of EU law, by Andrianos Giannou the School Strike 4 Climate. The young THE ILIAD this anchorless liberalism. Maxi- towards common goals in their mutual interest, or a Nation of Europe governed by ECR Group Discussion on US-EU Trade - April 9, 2019 CHINESE in its Member States. This is due seeking to enhance the competences of EU Conservative Books by James Delingpole E Swede, who shuns air travel, is in New ROOM TO GROW mum tolerance, it turns out, leads to two main reasons: first, the EU aims to supranational institutions and the protec- people far away from them in Brussels. SPANIARDS W.M. Thackeray’s s 16-year-old climate- activist-of- York to address the United Nations Cli- Written sometime between An interview with Professor Ryszard Legutko, to maximum impotence. p.18 n speeches and op-eds and during comes to the transatlantic relation- improve the efficiency of the management tion of the rule of law principle within the style, and refreshingly free she would prefer. Her only AND JAPANESE the-moment Greta Thunberg’s mate Change Summit later this month. 760 and 710 BC, and originally 2019 Co-Chairman of ECR Group media interviews I have tried to be ship. With that in mind, I am not of public policies, and second, it seeks to community. The second mechanism is VANITY FAIR Photo: European Union 2019 - Source: EP - Source: Union 2019 European Photo: by James Delingpole zero-emissions, solar-powered In this past year, she has become a sta- designed, of course, to be recited very frank in my assessments. Good here to complain or to lecture—I ITALIANS develop the so-called integration “through related to the majority voting procedure in A THE CONSERVATIVE I by Jay Nordlinger sailboat docked at North Cove Marina ple of leadership gatherings: she has spo- various countries to reform the Conservative Music friends should be frank; and though we would rather take this opportunity to law”, as well as through observing the rule the EU, which appears to be more and more rather than read, The Iliad came Vanity Fair is indeed a magnifi- in Manhattan on 28 August, follow- ken at Davos, the European, British and What do you see as the main European Union and it’s clear share so many interests and values, it’s strategize. of law principle. The goal of the follow- frequently used within its structures. Both before the main Greek philoso- When asked, with a gun to my cent novel and a great, rollicking ing a two-week trip across the Atlantic, French Parliaments and has also shaken priorities for the ECR Group as that the relatively high turnout YOUTUBE: THE not constructive to sweep aside our dif- Despite what you are hearing around ing article is to analyse certain European instruments are considered problematic in phers, the Roman Empire, Chris- head, to name my top ten operas, gathered crowds erupted in cheers and hands with the Pope. As she stepped off the new mandate begins? was a signal that many people ferences. I truly believe that most peo- town, the United States is open for busi- problems with democracy using the exam- light of democratic standards. According read, surprisingly modern in its tianity, the Renaissance and the ALEXANDRIAN applause. Inspired by her decision to skip the boat onto the yacht-filled harbour, in Europe expect the EU to be ple appreciate an honest exchange that ness and actively working to improve I always include Porgy and Bess ple of two basic mechanisms of European to some scholars, such mechanisms may tone and style, and refreshingly Enlightenment. This is Western school to picket the Swedish Parliament the press corps was at hand to record a PROF. RYSZARD LEGUTKO MEP reformed. So we hope to gather LIBRARY OF moves the needle. the global trade environment in ways (Gershwin). It’s an American integration: the first concerns the integra- therefore result in the rebellion of Member free of the earnest moralising we last August, millions of pupils around short statement: “Let’s not wait any lon- civilisation in its rawest, wildest, Well to continue the job that together people and forces here OUR TIME I think that many in this room hold that will ultimately benefit both sides of thing. I had it in my mother’s milk. tion “through law” and European consti- States along with their societies against EU have to endure in contemporaries the globe have skived off classes on Fri- ger. Let’s do it now.” the message comm- most untutored state. p.21 Elections we have been doing, trying to in the parliament and exert by Jay Nordlinger p.21 opinions similar to my own, and take the Atlantic. It means the world to me. p.21 tutionalism. Here, I will focus in particular institutions and thus might deepen further like Dickens. p.21 CONTINUED ON p.15 CONTINUED ON p.16 days in what has come to be known as enced. Do what exactly? persuade our colleagues from pressure on the powers that be. a strategic, long-term view when it CONTINUED ON p.14 on the example of the Court of Justice of disintegration processes in Europe. of the earnest moralising we real option, therefore, is

60 theconservative.online www.theconservative.online THE CONSERVATIVE | October 2019 | Issue 7 61 James Delingpole CONSERVATIVE BOOKS

The book is not exciting. Here, in the raw, is main female character – the novels – does read at times without its flaws. an almost Godless universe dreary, sexless, worthy, fee- like it was written on the When you buy it, where the smiling author ble-minded, maddeningly hoof with a view to titillat- make sure you get refuses to countenance any- drippy Amelia Sedley – ing with sudden shocks and an edition with a key thing so trite as a happy surely one of the most unin- cliffhangers. But that’s also to all the dramatis personae, otherwise ending. spiring women in literature. what gives it its exuberance you’re likely to find All this makes Vanity Fair Thackeray doesn’t want you and vitality: that sense you yourself lost for at a particularly refreshing anti- to like or admire him; he get of a writer at the height least the first half. dote to our own age of cant just wants to tell you what of his powers, bursting with and virtue-signalling. Were he knows. so much profligate talent Victorian audience, the pecu- he writing today, Thackeray The book is not without he can’t help squandering it niary preoccupations of its would no doubt be hailed by its flaws. When you buy it, now and then. There are lon- cast of characters will never feminists for having such an make sure you get an edition gueurs, yes. But also passages date. Then, as now, every- empowered, feisty, psycho- with a key to all the drama- of such vivid colour – the one wants to get a foot on logically plausible woman as tis personae, otherwise you’re scene at Vauxhall gardens; the ladder, to improve their his main protagonist. Except likely to find yourself lost for the ball before Waterloo; finances, status and lifestyle. he then goes and blows his at least the first half. Yes, it Becky’s brief apotheosis as And if they can’t achieve it by politically correct creden- could have been more tightly a society queen – that they fair means, well foul ones it tials completely with his edited and the sprawling will stick in your memory might just have to be... portrait of the book’s other plot – as is the way in serial forever. ■ Thackeray – via a chirpy, confiding authorial voice which frequently calls the reader aside to comment The EUROPEAN amusedly on proceedings – passes little moral judgment. Virtue is rarely rewarded; CONSERVATIVE wicked deeds often go Arsuaga. Bartulica. Baudet. Bolkestein. Brague. Burke. Buttiglione. Dalrymple. De Mattei. Del Noce. Delsol. unpunished. When John Espada. Fleming. Harris. Huizinga. Kinneging. Klink. Sedley loses all his money, Kuby. Kuehnelt-Leddihn. Kugler. Legutko. Ljungberg. Manent. Minogue. Nef. Nolte. O’Sullivan. Sacks. he is not suddenly redeemed Sanandaji. Sarrazin. Schindler. Schwarz. Scruton. by penury: it simply turns Thatcher. Tyrmand. Voegelin. Waldstein. to ensnare a succession of who himself gambled away him into an irritating loser These are justAD some of the names you’ll encounter richer men. his inheritance, writes with engaged in endless fruitless when you read The European Conservative, the oldest English-language, pan-European conservative Money is the driving feeling and insight on the money-making schemes magazine. The European Conservative publishes force not just for Becky but subject: how to make it; which drive his poor wife articles, editorials, essays, and reviews representing the many varieties of ‘respectable conservatism’ across Europe — from anti-statists and for most characters in Van- how to spend it; how to lose and daughter deeper into free market enthusiasts to traditionalists and constitutional monarchists. ity Fair. (Just as you might it. One of the chapters is misery. Thackeray’s cyni- We welcome unsolicited manuscripts. expect of a book which takes famously titled: “How to live cism – especially in an era Back issues are available in PDF format at: www.europeanconservative.com its title from the licentious well on nothing a year”. more religious than our own centre of commerce in John Though the book is set For information about the magazine or to support our efforts as a volunteer or donor, please contact: – is breathtaking, and may editor@ europeanconservative.com Bunyan’s allegory The Pil- in Regency England (and explain why contemporary grim’s Progress.) Thackeray, Europe) and written for a audiences found the book so

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