The Death of the Conservative Mind

I appreciate William Grigg’s comments regarding Dr. Krauthammer’s Kriegslust. It reminds me of Krauthammer’s grimly consistent irrationalism  after 9-11, when he was screaming loudly for war and shouting down anyone who disagreed. When sane people —yes, the man is a psychiatrist, and sane people don’t need psychiatrists, so perhaps he resents us — when sane people insisted that the U.S. not rush into an undeclared war without a constitutional debate and a legal declaration, with a dash of proof thrown in,  Dr.  Krauthammer called us  “navel gazers,” a term which apparently took him twelve years of medical studies to derive.

Krauthammer shares this anti-intellectualismwith Karl Marx:  Marx’s 11th Thesis on Feuerbach complains that philosophy has only tried to understand the world; “the point is, to change it.” Enough of those navel-gazers, scream Karl and Krauthammer! On with the revolution! (Nor does the revolution of Krauthammer differ in essence from that of Marx: both accord to the intellectual elite and its “raised consciousness” the right to worldwide domination).

Back in the old days, when the nascent conservative movement actually cherished  ideas (they have consequences, remember?), the point was to understand the world. I note Lew’s earlier post indicating the high regard for Krauthammer held by what passes for “conservatives” today, and what it says about their intellectual priorities: No “navel-gazing,” please! Move along! Nothing to see here!

The age of the rational conservative is over. The entire stage “right” is now full of forbidden questions (What forces drive our Middle East policies? What are the goals of our wars? How do you spell “Constitution”? Yes, greed is bad, but what about the lust for power?) and arguments by assertion (Ignorance [ban Wikileaks!] Is Strength!). Perhaps psychiatrist Krauthammer might culminate his career by telling us why the conservative mind committed suicide.

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10:18 am on December 4, 2010