Author: Paul Gottfried

The current issue of Society begins with a review by Philip Rieff, written in 1964, of the sociological concept of “Ressentiment.” The concept here discussed by Rieff, then a professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, goes back to the early 19th century, when the Danish theologian Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) introduced it, though not as a sociological term. Kierkegaard spoke about Ressentiment as a spiritual state that the man of faith must work to overcome. Later, Nietzsche, perhaps most conspicuously in his Genealogy of Morals (1887), reintroduced Ressentiment in regard to ethical and religious matters. Nietzsche employed this concept in … Continue reading →

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Reading Rich Lowry’s latest column “Trump’s Path to Victory” has made one blogger wonder whether “NR is about to pivot to the Trumpster.” But this is most unlikely.  Although Rich reluctantly concedes that Trump “really can beat Hillary” and that, moreover, he himself had been wrong in imagining this “reality-TV star with a spotty business record and a weird penchant for proclaiming he was on the verge of running for president” could ever win, the conservative luminary is  not about to pivot with his magazine. In his column, Lowry pours as much venom on Trump as he ever did in … Continue reading →

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A few days ago David Limbaugh, a widely-syndicated Republican commentator (and Rush’s less fiery younger brother) posted a commentary intended to de-escalate the tensions between Trump’s supporters and the “never-Trumpers.” Limbaugh defines himself as a “reluctant Trumper,” who decided to support the Donald as the lesser of two evils after his preferred candidate Ted Cruz stumbled in the primaries. Limbaugh does not hide his dislike for Trump’s free-wheeling rhetoric and believes that the GOP nominee’s critics on the right may be fully justified in doubting his “genuine commitment to conservative policies.” Despite these doubts, Limbaugh endorses Trump for reasons that … Continue reading →

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Although I’ve never made a secret of my opinion of Jonah’s pseudo-scholarship or my annoyance with his self-importance as a “conservative” thinker, I now feel sorry for this guy. Let me explain! Jonah has just posted a eulogy for longtime conservative advocate Phyllis Schlafly, who died on September 5 at age ninety-two. Phyllis, who was kind enough to have had me on her radio program, embodied what was the gold standard of American conservatism in my youth. She favored traditional gender distinctions, although she was clearly not averse to women like herself practicing law and standing up for conservative principles. … Continue reading →

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Last week in Commentary, neocon publicist Noah Rothman brazenly or stupidly denied the obvious. Having learned that Hillary Clinton, in a speech before the American Foreign Legion, trotted out such phrases as “America the indispensable nation” and “American the exceptional nation,” Rothman attributes the belief that the Democratic candidate is a “closet neo-conservative” to the “hysterical left.” Rothman assails a nutcase Left for what may be self-evident to the rest of us: “It is in Clinton’s implicit admission that the next president must begin the work of repairing the damage done to geopolitical stability and American preeminence by Barack Obama that … Continue reading →

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A comparison that is repeatedly made by Democrats and establishment Republicans concerns Trump’s campaign and the disastrous defeat of GOP presidential candidate Barry Goldwater in 1964. This comparison is, unfortunately, more often than not abused. For example, Shermichael Singleton, a Republican consultant, inThe Hill (June 7) faults Trump for replicating Goldwater’s “alienation of minority voters” from the GOP. This estrangement allegedly began when Goldwater took issue with the Public Accommodations Clause of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Yet the black vote for Republican presidential candidates had been declining for decades before Goldwater became a presidential candidate, going all the way … Continue reading →

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Listening to George Will pontificate recently on Fox News about his “conservative” principles, I had to ask for the millionth time what Mr. Will and his like-minded friends mean by “conservative.” And I don’t ask this question as a neophyte, having published more on the subject of conservatism than probably anyone else on the planet. But every time I hear the term used to describe a GOP position on just about anything, I have to wonder what makes that position “conservative.” Why for example is nation-building abroad, which involves imposing the latest model of American democracy on populations that are culturally … Continue reading →

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This talk was delivered on November 23, 2008, at the H.L. Mencken Club. If the H.L. Mencken Club can achieve that for which it has been formed, it should have an eventful and for those who disagree with us, profoundly disruptive future. We are part of an attempt to put together an independent intellectual Right, one that exists without movement establishment funding and one that our opponents would be delighted not to have to deal with. Our group is also full of young thinkers and activists, and if there is to be an independent Right, our group will have to become … Continue reading →

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The late Andrew Breitbart is credited with the statement that “politics is downstream of culture.” Since Breitbart made that memorable assertion, Red State, Daily Caller and other Republican websites have expressed the same view. By now this remark has risen to the status of an axiom. Too bad it’s simply wrong as a description of contemporary Western societies! Clearly, those repeating Breitbart’s statement have not read my work on the managerial state and its changing ideological justifications. Having spent decades trying to demonstrate the power of modern democratic states over moral attitudes and social practices, I’ve noticed that no one … Continue reading →

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The late Andrew Breitbart is credited with the statement that “politics is downstream of culture.” Since Breitbart made that memorable assertion, Red State, Daily Caller and other Republican websites have expressed the same view. By now this remark has risen to the status of an axiom. Too bad it’s simply wrong as a description of contemporary Western societies! Clearly, those repeating Breitbart’s statement have not read my work on the managerial state and its changing ideological justifications. Having spent decades trying to demonstrate the power of modern democratic states over moral attitudes and social practices, I’ve noticed that no one … Continue reading →

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Recently while rereading John Stuart Mill’s Considerations on Representative Government, a tract published in 1861 by a self-described political “Radical,” an early feminist, and an advocate of “economic democracy,” it dawned on me that Mill’s defense of a “universal franchise” in the context of  representative democracy would be condemned today as pure fascism. Although Mill thought that the franchise should be extended to include both sexes and should function without a property requirement, he insisted that representative government could only work if sensible restrictions were maintained. First of all, “the receipt of parish relief should be a peremptory disqualification for … Continue reading →

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Retired Harvard professor of political theory Harvey Mansfield recently published a commentary in Wall Street Journal (July 30) characterizing Trump as “no gentleman” but as a “demagogue who loves to be loved” and as a “vulgar man” who shows “an affinity for whatever is vulgar.” Moreover, “the voters behind him excuse Mr. Trump for his ungentlemanly behavior.”  No one who’s been reading editorials in the Wall Street Journal or political statements by Mansfield would be surprised by this attack. Both have strongly identified with establishment Republicans in their opposition to the GOP presidential candidate. But what is striking about Mansfield’s … Continue reading →

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For several weeks I’ve been watching Fox news commentators slamming Muslim societies for not permitting, among other things, gay marriage and special protection for the transgendered. It is strange indeed that our media “conservatives” should be loudly championing culturally leftist causes, an advocacy that is becoming integral to how they define themselves politically. About ten years ago I also started noticing neoconservative journalists defending gay marriage as a “family value.” In the Republican New York Post, editorials have been calling for turning Stonewall Inn, the pub in NYC where gays in 1969 demanded a right to party and to enjoy … Continue reading →

The post The Death of Conservatism appeared first on LewRockwell.

Integral to the implausible claim that Donald Trump has wrested the GOP from “conservatives” is a recent statement by former G.W. Bush speechwriter and Fox-news wise man, Marc Thiessen in The Washington Post that “Trump has followed a consistent strategy of neutralizing traditional Democratic attacks by adopting the Democrats’ positions.” A striking example of this strategy cited by Thiessen is Trump’s foreign policy, which sees him “campaigning from the isolationist Left.” Aside from the inconvenient fact that Trump has announced that as president he’ll “knock the sh-t out of ISIS,” there is absolutely no reason that an intelligent person would … Continue reading →

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Integral to the implausible claim that Donald Trump has wrested the GOP from “conservatives” is a recent statement by former G.W. Bush speechwriter and Fox-news wise man, Marc Thiessen in The Washington Post that “Trump has followed a consistent strategy of neutralizing traditional Democratic attacks by adopting the Democrats’ positions.” A striking example of this strategy cited by Thiessen is Trump’s foreign policy, which sees him “campaigning from the isolationist Left.” Aside from the inconvenient fact that Trump has announced that as president he’ll “knock the sh-t out of ISIS,” there is absolutely no reason that an intelligent person would … Continue reading →

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