Patrick Deneen’s most recent article in The American Conservative, “Counterfeiting Conservatism,” brings to mind an excerpt from one of the essays in my application to the John Jay Institute:

One of the more interesting criticisms of Edmund Burke made by Leo Strauss was that, in his valiant effort to defend certain latent functions in society, Burke had subsequently stripped them of that very latency.

It is a tragic irony which conservatives face, that their need and sense of duty to defend the traditions of their society often robs those very traditions of their greatest strength. By exposing their “veil” of beauty to rational, often cold, debate, all mystery and consecrated prejudice is removed. The challenge of each succeeding generation is finding a defense of its heritage that doesn’t strip it to naked axioms.

While Burke’s work did not go to this extreme, it was unfortunate that such an
explicit defense of “pleasing illusions” was necessary. Nonetheless, society depends upon these defenses for its survival. President Truman is often quoted for observing that, “Anything is possible if you don’t care who gets the credit.” It is this attitude alone which stands the best chance of answering the sort of challenges which Burke attempted to quell.

This, of course, is what animated my first thoughts on The Tragic Nature of Conservatism.

Tags: Conservatism, Edmund Burke, Tragedy

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