Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
What is conservatism?
Before reading an article with this title by Ofir Haivry and Yoram Hazony in a recent issue of American
Affairs, I would have replied individual liberty, small government, and a robust foreign policy. Their article
taught me a completely different and much deeper understanding.
http://www.danielpipes.org/18452/conservativism-hidden-history?utm_source=Middle+East+Forum&utm_campaign=f8fa2e4325-EMAIL_CAMPAI… 1/3
8/1/2018 Conservatism's Hidden History :: Daniel Pipes
our time. Proclaimed universal laws can justify any sins once
unmoored from accumulated wisdom and experience.
The two sides are evenly matched in American politics, with power regularly shifting back and forth. But in
education and culture, liberalism dominates. In schools, for example, liberals teach liberalism and
conservatives are nearly absent. This liberal hegemony means conservatives are routinely castigated as
"illiberal" and therefore morally inferior; thus did a recent Atlantic article ask, "Is American conservatism
inherently bigoted?"
It also means, as Haivry writes me, that "while hundreds of prominent universities and institutes are devoted
to examining the liberal tradition, none are dedicated to studying and developing the principles of Anglo-
American conservatism. However, a few colleagues and I are trying to restore this great tradition and we seek
support to set up an institution devoted to this goal." May their project prosper.
Mr. Pipes (DanielPipes.org, @DanielPipes) taught Western intellectual history at the University
of Chicago. © 2018 by Daniel Pipes. All rights reserved.
July 31, 2018 addenda: (1) This distinction goes far to explain why the less educated tend to be
conservatives and the more educated tend to be liberals; the former are less likely to think themselves
competent to think issues through on their own.
http://www.danielpipes.org/18452/conservativism-hidden-history?utm_source=Middle+East+Forum&utm_campaign=f8fa2e4325-EMAIL_CAMPAI… 2/3
8/1/2018 Conservatism's Hidden History :: Daniel Pipes
(2) One of the most striking points Haivry and Hazony make concerns the weakness of the assumptions
behind Locke's Second Treatise of Government. He
Three important things should be noticed about this set of axioms. The first is that the elements
of Locke's political theory are not known from experience. ... The second thing to notice is that
there is no reason to think that any of Locke's axioms are in fact true. ... Third, Locke's theory
not only dispenses with the historical and empirical basis for the state, it also implies that such
inquiries are, if not entirely unnecessary, then of secondary importance.
Comments: (1) How shocking to realize that the founding document of liberalism was based on pure fantasy.
(2) In other words, this political philosophy had faulty premises from the very start. (3) Things did not get
better over the next 329 years.
Related Articles:
All materials by Daniel Pipes on this site: © 1968-2018 Daniel Pipes. daniel.pipes@gmail.com and @DanielPipes
Support Daniel Pipes' work with a tax-deductible donation to the Middle East Forum.
http://www.danielpipes.org/18452/conservativism-hidden-history?utm_source=Middle+East+Forum&utm_campaign=f8fa2e4325-EMAIL_CAMPAI… 3/3