There’s an awful lot of talk here Alex. Maybe its all relevant to someone. To me, it comes down to these points:
“...conservatives have failed to devote the proper amount of energy to developing an alternative cultural world-view opposed to the dominant leftist one.”
“Being conservative has come to mean nothing more nuanced than holding the belief that every man has the inalienable right to make as much money as he possibly can.”
“New Traditionalists reject the materialism, hedonism, consumerism, egoism, and the cult of self-actualization which permeate modern life.”
Look familiar, my friend? :)
I like the article because it resonates with these thoughts of mine:
- Primacy of political goals over cultural goals was a mistake. The thinking “let’s get the GOP elected and then worry about the cultural agenda” did not deliver the cultural agenda, and couldn’t keep the GOP in power anyway.
- The Reagan coalition of cultural and religious right, Wall Street libertarianism and militarism had no reason to survive the Cold War, and is now dead.
- Conservatives should strive for better identification rather than for coalition building. The new right should strengthen its Christian and countercultural character.
- Parallel, explicitly Christian institutions should be built whenever possible, while secular institutions gradually abandoned.
Basically, we should be preparing for the catacombs.