The EUROPEAN CONSERVATIVE Issue 12 • Summer/Fall 2015 €5 / $5 Summer/Fall 2015 1 Contents Guest Commentary: On True Civilization Andreas Kinneging ............................................................................................................................................................. 3 The Myopia of Cultural Relativism Filip Mazurczak .................................................................................................................................................................. 4 The Politics of Separatism Alexander Biermann ........................................................................................................................................................... 7 Free Expression in Poland Matthew Tyrmand .............................................................................................................................................................. 9 Magna Carta, Liberty & the Medieval Mind André P. DeBattista ........................................................................................................................................................... 12 Marriage & the Family Rabbi Lord Sacks .............................................................................................................................................................. 16 On Dubrovnik Robin Harris ..................................................................................................................................................................... 20 A New European Referendum — A review of Manifesto to the People of the Netherlands by Dixhoorn & Houwelingen Tom Zwitser ....................................................................................................................................................................... 27 Briefly Noted — Other recently published books we should be reading The Editors .................................................................................................................................................................. 29-30 The End of Germany? — A review of Thilo Sarrazin’s Germany Abolishes Itself Thomas Spannring ........................................................................................................................................................... 31 Borders & Political Order — A review of Thierry Baudet’s The Significance of Borders Philippe Marlou ................................................................................................................................................................ 32 The Future of France? — A review of Michel Houellebecq’s Soumission Pr. Edmund Waldstein ..................................................................................................................................................... 33 A Critique of Modernity — A review of Augusto Del Noce’s The Crisis of Modernity Alvino-Mario Fantini ........................................................................................................................................................ 35 A Literary Love — A review of Roger Scruton’s Notes from Underground Roman Joch ...................................................................................................................................................................... 37 The Necessity of the Good Rémi Brague ..................................................................................................................................................................... 39 Augusto Del Noce, Eric Voegelin & Modernity Bjørn Thomassen & Rosario Forlenza ............................................................................................................................. 43 Caspar von Schrenck-Notzing: Conservative Founding Father Harald Bergbauer ............................................................................................................................................................. 47 Defining Right & Left Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn ............................................................................................................................................. 50 The Cultural Roots of Conservatism Roger Kimball .................................................................................................................................................................. 54 Editor-in-Chief: Alvino-Mario Fantini Editor-at-Large: Brian T. Gill U.S. Correspondent: Gerald J. Russello Editorial Board: Stjepo Bartulica, Roman Joch, Ellen Kryger, Filip Mazurczak, Lorenzo Montanari, G.K. Montrose, Alexandre Pesey, Matthew Tyrmand, Pr. Edmund Waldstein, Karl-Gustel Wärnberg Advisory Council: Rémi Brague, Robin Harris, Mark Henrie, Annette Kirk, Roger Scruton Contact: [email protected] Donations: ABN/AMRO Account Nr. 60.17.73.993, IBAN: NL71ABNA0601773993, BIC/SWIFT: ABNANL2A 2 Summer/Fall 2015 Issue 12 Summer/Fall 2015 Guest Commentary On True Civilization Andreas Kinneging All very true. But also very untrue. Because behind all the various manifestations, one finds the general o one is in favour of barbarism. Not idea of the gentleman transcending the boundaries even barbarians. Everyone is on the side of time and place. All it takes is a somewhat Platonic Nof civilization. Hitler, Mao, and Stalin way of looking at things—of which historians are are recent cases in point. All three were very much professionally incapable, of course. ‘pro civilization’. At least for what they took to be Civility is not the only characteristic of the civilization. Socrates said that no one willingly strives gentleman. He also exhibits courage in danger and for what is bad. Everyone aims for what he believes perseverance in difficulties. He is neither a coward is good. The question is, of course: What is truly nor someone who gives up easily. Moreover, the good? Analogously, we should ask ourselves: What gentleman is a man of sense. He is judicious and is true civilization? reasonable. Finally, he always tries to be fair, as far as In searching for an answer to this important humanly possible. One can count on his word. He is question, most of us tend to focus on politics and generous and kind. political ideas. We are inclined to think of states In real life, one often feels surrounded by and ideologies as the stuff of civilization and barbarians. Even in the company of self-proclaimed barbarism. From this perspective, the Third Reich conservatives. Why is that? Obviously because most and Nazism, the USSR and communism qualify as people, including conservatives, have forgotten the barbaric; Western society and liberalism as civilized. importance of being a gentleman. The ideal is almost Conservatives, of course, have grave doubts about dead. liberalism, and where it is leading Western society. That is terrible. It seems to me that conservatism I agree that politics and political ideas are vital. should also—and perhaps in the first place—be a After all, as Aristotle said, the good life is a life within defence of the ideal of the gentleman. And let us not the polis. The polis needs to be a good polis, and hence forget the ideal of the lady, its feminine counterpart, deserves careful attention. which is equally in need of restauration. But politics and political ideas is not everything. Where to look for inspiration? A good place to When it comes to civilization and barbarism, the start, if I may be so free to make a few suggestions, are distinction between them is also of great use at the two witty books from 16th century Italy: Giovanni level of personal life. Della Casa’s Il Galateo, overo de’ costume (Galateo: The There, civilization refers to, among other things, Rules of Polite Behaviour), published in 1558, and civility, as opposed not to martiality but to rudeness, Baldassare Castiglione’s Il Cortegiano (The Book of the impoliteness, offensiveness, which are all expressions Courtier), published in 1528. The latter book especially of a barbaric nature on a personal level. was extraordinarily influential in establishing the ideal Civility in this sense is very much underrated in of the gentleman and woman in Europe. “It is hard, our day. It is even more important than civilization indeed, to think of any work, more opposed to the on a political level. One can be happy and content, spirit of the modern age”, writes one of Castiglione’s even under a tyranny, but not when surrounded 20th century translators. And so it is. merely by ill-mannered, loutish, boorish people. But behind these two books lie three other books Civility came to full fruition in the ideal of that are the true source of the gentlemanly ideal. the gentleman, which is, contrary to what some They are all from Antiquity. They are Plato’s Republic, Englishmen believe, a truly European ideal. Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, and Cicero’s On Duties. Historians of the ideal of the gentleman relish in Of these, the first is indubitably the greatest. Every finding differences in the way it has been understood conservative should know them by heart. in various ages and countries. They tell their reader that the gentleman of the Renaissance is not the Andreas Kinneging is a Professor at the Law School of the gentleman of the Victorian Age, and that the Spanish University of Leiden in The Netherlands. He is a founder of gentilhombre does not equal the French gentilhomme, the Center for European Renewal and former President of the and that both differ from the Italian gentiluomo, etc. Vanenburg Society. The European