Kirk analyzes the loss of this recognition in this very essay:
What binds society together? The libertarians reply that the cement of society (so far as they will endure any binding at all) is self-interest, closely joined to the nexus of cash payment. But the conservatives declare that society is a community of souls, joining the dead, the living, and those yet unborn
The Libertarians Kirk attacks are fundamentally presentist. Historical knowledge and precedents are beyond their concern. They care very little for those who have gone before. Since libertarianism can be summed up in a few pithy concepts, it cannot bear very much reality not already contained by such principles. Their philistinism should be pitiable, yet being so common it is downright tragic.
Do you know the date this essay was published? Was it pre-Goldwater?
Do you think Kirk would be at home in the modern conservative movement? As stated in my comments in #91, I think otherwise.
You might be interested in Daniel Larison's comments on Kirk here and here.
Thank you for posting this essay.
This is a rather frail straw man. The libertarian view that interpersonal relationships are properly based on voluntery agreement is not necessarily joined to "cash payment" (most human relationships are obviously based on other rewards).
As for it being based on "self-interest", this is true in the sense in which every political or social principle is based on self-interest (libertarians think people would be better off if they followed libertarian recommendations, conservatives think people would be better off if they followed conservative recommendations, marxists think people would be better off if they followed marxist recommendations, etc). Thus, Kirk's statement is technically correct, but trivially so and useless in weighing the merits and demerits of libertarianism.
Again, my other readings show that Kirk knows better than this, and I simply don't see what caused his usual level of argument to sink to that normally found at a bar or (present company excepted) on some Internet argument forum.