The reactionary mind
Ratings4
Average rating4.3
15
Ratings4
Average rating4.3
Late in life, William F. Buckley made a confession to Corey Robin. Capitalism is "boring," said the founding father of the American right. "Devoting your life to it," as conservatives do, "is horrifying if only because it's so repetitious. It's like sex." With this unlikely conversation began Robin's decade-long foray into the conservative mind. What is conservatism, and what's truly at stake for its proponents? If capitalism bores them, what excites them? Tracing conservatism back to its roots in the reaction against the French Revolution, Robin argues that the right is fundamentally inspired by a hostility to emancipating the lower orders. Some conservatives endorse the free market, others oppose it. Some criticize the state, others celebrate it. Underlying these differences is the impulse to defend power and privilege against movements demanding freedom and equality. Despite their opposition to these movements, conservatives favor a dynamic conception of politics and society--one that involves self-transformation, violence, and war. They are also highly adaptive to new challenges and circumstances. This partiality to violence and capacity for reinvention has been critical to their success. Written by a keen, highly regarded observer of the contemporary political scene, The Reactionary Mind ranges widely, from Edmund Burke to Antonin Scalia, from John C. Calhoun to Ayn Rand. It advances the notion that all rightwing ideologies, from the eighteenth century through today, are historical improvisations on a theme: the felt experience of having power, seeing it threatened, and trying to win it back. - Publisher.
Reviews with the most likes.
A powerful insight into the political right and its rise over the last forty years. I came away feeling somewhat less hopeful about humanity as the presence and momentum of Conservatism became clearer through reading this book. Recommended to all, especially lefties like me.
The only disappointing aspect of the book as a whole is that the author somewhat lazily cobbles the book from previously written essays over the years sandwiched between an opening and closing chapter. As such it lacks a certain coherence and elegance that a more wilful effort might have made. In spite of this I am grateful to the author for writing this important book.
Sometimes a book could be written better but what it's saying is so good you'll forgive the structure.
I'll be slowly digesting the points made in this book for a while, and there's a good chance it will impact how I view any Conservatives in the future.
I think it could've been more cohesively structured throughout - highlighting the connections between each article and the primary thesis - but it's still so fresh I gotta give it five stars.
