08-24-2024, 09:16 AM
https://tomklingenstein.com/the-beginning-and-end-of-postmodern-america
Do we live in normal times, times of bounded contestation and turmoil, of chaos and disarray that still operate within the paradigm of normal American politics? Or is that paradigm collapsing, from atrophy or from antipathy? For conservatives living in the post-fusion era, the once-latent cleavages within their ranks have been revealed, contributing to the intimation that everything is falling apart. Old friends have become new enemies. A younger generation revolts against the older. A national election is not far off. A new Republican Party is taking form. Some see poison in the emerging coalition; others see an antidote.
The reunification of conservatism cannot occur without a clear-headed answer about the question: is America messy but okay, or is it deconstructing before our inattentive eyes — and therefore in need of stronger medicine than normal politics requires? A conservative coalition, if it emerges, is going to have to form around one or the other of these two alternative assessments.
In “Totalitarianism, American Style,” Glenn Ellmers and Ted Richards argue that America is, indeed, deconstructing before our eyes, and give as one of the reasons the preeminence of postmodern thinking on the left. Foucault provides the banner — “power is truth” — under which its troops advance. With unwavering conviction, those on the left derogate arguments that allude to convention, tradition, nature, or revelation. Conservatives presuppose these to be foundations on which civilization rests; those on the left presuppose them to be shackles forged to limit, oppress, colonize, and stain. Every idea and institution based on these faux-foundations, it members aver, must go: love, honor, and friendship; family, church, and state.
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Originally Posted by Swordsmyth
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