The Harvard Salient
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Ten
Principles of the Conservative Mind
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Many consider Russell
Kirk (1918 - 1994), a prolific author, social critic, and public
intellectual, the father of the American conservative movement. His magnum
opus, The Conservative Mind, recognized a distinct Anglo-American
conservative tradition of thought, grounded around figures such as Edmund
Burke and John C. Calhoun, at a time when New Deal liberalism was ascendant. Reprinted below are selections from Kirk’s essay on
the ten principles of conservatism, adapted from his 1993 book, The
Politics of Prudence (ISI Books). —The Editors * * * * Perhaps it would be well,
most of the time, to use this word “conservative” as an adjective
chiefly. For there exists no Model Conservative, and conservatism is the
negation of ideology: it is a state of mind, a type of character, a way of
looking at the civil social order. The attitude we call conservatism is sustained by a body of
sentiments, rather than by a system of ideological dogmata. It is almost true
that a conservative may be defined as a person who thinks himself such. The
conservative movement or body of opinion can accommodate a considerable
diversity of views on a good many subjects, there being no Test Act or
Thirty-Nine Articles of the conservative creed. In essence, the conservative person is simply one who finds
the permanent things more pleasing than Chaos and Old Night. (Yet
conservatives know, with Burke, that healthy “change is the means of
our preservation.”) A people’s historic continuity of experience,
says the conservative, offers a guide to policy far better than the abstract
designs of coffee-house philosophers. But of course there is more to the
conservative persuasion than this general attitude. First, the conservative believes that there exists an
enduring moral order. That order is made for man, and man is made for it:
human nature is a constant, and moral truths are permanent. Second, the conservative adheres to custom, convention, and
continuity. It is old custom that enables people to live together peaceably;
the destroyers of custom demolish more than they know or desire. It is
through convention—a word much abused in our time—that we
contrive to avoid perpetual disputes about rights and duties: law at base is
a body of conventions. Continuity is the means of linking generation to
generation; it matters as much for society as it does for the individual;
without it, life is meaningless. Third, conservatives believe in what may be called the
principle of prescription. Conservatives sense that modern people are dwarfs
on the shoulders of giants, able to see farther than their ancestors only
because of the great stature of those who have preceded us in time. Therefore
conservatives very often emphasize the importance of prescription—that
is, of things established by immemorial usage, so that the mind of man
runneth not to the contrary. There exist rights of which the chief sanction
is their antiquity—including rights to property, often. Similarly, our
morals are prescriptive in great part. Conservatives argue that we are
unlikely, we moderns, to make any brave new discoveries in morals or politics
or taste. It is perilous to weigh every passing issue on the basis of private
judgment and private rationality. The individual is foolish, but the species
is wise, Burke declared. In politics we do well to abide by precedent and
precept and even prejudice, for the great mysterious incorporation of the
human race has acquired a prescriptive wisdom far greater than any
man’s petty private rationality. Fourth, conservatives are guided by their principle of
prudence. Burke agrees with Plato that in the statesman, prudence is chief
among virtues. Any public measure ought to be judged by its probable long-run
consequences, not merely by temporary advantage or popularity. Liberals and
radicals, the conservative says, are imprudent: for they dash at their
objectives without giving much heed to the risk of new abuses worse than the
evils they hope to sweep away. As John Randolph of Fifth, conservatives pay attention to the principle of
variety. They feel affection for the proliferating intricacy of
long-established social institutions and modes of life, as distinguished from
the narrowing uniformity and deadening egalitarianism of radical systems. For
the preservation of a healthy diversity in any civilization, there must
survive orders and classes, differences in material condition, and many sorts
of inequality. Sixth, conservatives are chastened by their principle of
imperfectability. Human nature suffers irremediably from certain grave
faults, the conservatives know. Man being imperfect, no perfect social order
ever can be created. Because of human restlessness, mankind would grow rebellious
under any utopian domination, and would break out once more in violent
discontent—or else expire of boredom. To seek for utopia is to end in
disaster, the conservative says: we are not made for perfect things Seventh, conservatives are persuaded that freedom and
property are closely linked. Separate property from private possession, and
Leviathan becomes master of all. Upon the foundation of private property,
great civilizations are built. The more widespread is the possession of
private property, the more stable and productive is a commonwealth Eighth, conservatives uphold voluntary community, quite as
they oppose involuntary collectivism. Although Americans have been attached
strongly to privacy and private rights, they also have been a people conspicuous
for a successful spirit of community. In a genuine community, the decisions
most directly affecting the lives of citizens are made locally and
voluntarily. Ninth, the conservative perceives the need for prudent
restraints upon power and upon human passions. Politically speaking, power is
the ability to do as one likes, regardless of the wills of one’s
fellows. A state in which an individual or a small group are able to dominate
the wills of their fellows without check is a despotism, whether it is called
monarchical or aristocratic or democratic. When every person claims to be a
power unto himself, then society falls into anarchy. Tenth, the thinking conservative understands that
permanence and change must be recognized and reconciled in a vigorous society.
The conservative is not opposed to social improvement, although he doubts
whether there is any such force as a mystical Progress, with a Roman P, at
work in the world.Change is essential to the body social, the conservative
reasons, just as it is essential to the human body. A body that has ceased to
renew itself has begun to die. But if that body is to be vigorous, the change
must occur in a regular manner, harmonizing with the form and nature of that
body; otherwise change produces a monstrous growth, a cancer, which devours
its host. The conservative takes care that nothing in a society should ever
be wholly old, and that nothing should ever be wholly new. |
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