I found this quote tonight:
Q: What is conservatism? A: Conservatism is the domination of society by an aristocracy.
Q: What is wrong with conservatism? A: Conservatism is incompatible with democracy, prosperity, and civilization in general. It is a destructive system of inequality and prejudice that is founded on deception and has no place in the modern world.
You can read the rest of this essay at http://www.takeoverworld.info/conservatism.htm
What the essay really told me though is the reason so many Pagans get caught up in the Libertarian political cult: because it’s about restoring the aristocracy!
Many Pagans are into the whole Renn-Faire/SCA bag, and that’s all well and good and a lot of fun. But some of these same Pagans visualize themselves as being Royalty: of making their own laws and governing their own lands and having a few thousand serfs to do their bidding. And, as I’ve discussed elsewhere in this blog, a Libertarian dominated government would bring together exactly the right conditions to restore the aristocracy.
I mentioned this to a co-worker the other day, just to gauge what her thoughts were (and knowing her to be a Randian anyway). She said that I was exactly correct (with the understanding that of course, EVERYONE wants to restore the monarchy).
Funny, but I thought we fought a war back in 1776 to get rid of those guys!
My late college history teacher once observed that the only reason our revolution was not as bloody and cruel as that of the French was because our aristocratic class was across the ocean and we couldn’t get our hands on them. Makes sense.
For the rest of the day I kept picturing my co-workers head in a basket. 🙂
Posted August 30, 2006
