Thoughts on Thought, Provocative or Not

I recently finished reading Liberty & Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto by the Great One Mark Levin and couldn't help but think about his book in relation to other notables on politics and Conservatism.

First of all, I should say that his book was excellent. Conservatism can often times be hard to define, explain, etc. Liberalism is easy to talk about because all of the references are emotional ones, designed to elicit a response to direct the readers thoughts and opinions. Once the emotional foundation has been laid, the government policy is unveiled, never specific, just enough to satisfy the emotions of the audience. Conservatism has no such easy crutch because it's founded in a belief in human nature, the rule of law and free market capitalism. The beauty of conservatism is also its biggest anchor. The ideas aren't new. They are tried and true. Tested, verified and documented. When applied purely, conservatism doesn't fail in any area. This however does not lend itself to typical politicians and their shallow understanding and presentation of the issues.

For conservatism to thrive, those presenting it must have a deep understanding of its historical applications and foundations in addition to simply believing in it. Levin has done an excellent job producing a book that easily readable and understandable. It explains the conservative solution in stark contrast to Statist solutions. Many people I know have always felt conservative but simply couldn't explain it in the face of leftist attacks. Levin has solved that problem and anybody who reads the book will come away from it armed with knowledge for the next political confrontation.

This got me thinking about other books that were similarly inspiring. Edmund Burke, John Locke, Alexis de Tocqueville, Adam Smith, etc. all provide the solid foundation for conservative thought. Anyone truly interested in conservatism must read those authors to be fully qualified. The philosopher I come back to constantly though, above all of those, is John Stuart Mill.

While the other authors mentioned focus on economics, property, role of government etc. I was always drawn to Mill because he focused on the most important part of the civil society; the individual. Now his philosophy was never called conservative. He was a Utilitarian, picking up where Jeremy Bentham left off. Utilitarianism in some ways seems like Libertarianism but in reality it more closely resembles conservatism and its main focus is that whatever doesn't hurt others should be left to the individual and ignored by the government. It is an entire philosophical theory on minding your own business. He writes extensively about the need for free speech, including ignorant free speech, as absolutely vital to freedom. He was a free market economist, considering contracts private to those who enter into it and he was one of the most outspoken liberal philosophers on the subject of womens rights and the devastation of slavery.

There was one point that is particularly relevant today. Mill writes at some length about the future. Following his belief in not harming others, so to did he believe that no person or entity, private or public, should be able to dictate (harm) future generations. He applied this to tax policy, entitlements, land grants, etc. There is quite a bit of material but I think his point was that one generation cannot force subsequent generations to enter into detrimental contracts as they would have no say in the matter.

This is particularly relevant today given some of the health care proposals being tossed about so casually by politicians but in reality this line of thought attacks the social policies of this country since FDR radically changed the American landscape.

So as the summer drones on, I give to you some fine works that I feel are as important to Conservatism as Locke's, Burke's, Smith's or Levin's. Hopefully they can be as helpful to you as to me dealing with out current political climate and instability. Knowledge does much to sooth the frayed emotions of these fights and these books should help to that end.

J.S. Mill:
On Liberty
Utilitarianism
The Subjection of Women
Essays on Some Unsettled Questions of Political Economy

Mark Levin:
Liberty & Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto

I'll add more as time allows.