Comments on: A Conservative is… http://perilousrealm.net/2009/05/23/a-conservative-is/ Looking for Rivendell in Rochester, NY Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:03:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Pauli http://perilousrealm.net/2009/05/23/a-conservative-is/comment-page-1/#comment-34770 Pauli Thu, 25 Jun 2009 12:48:28 +0000 http://perilousrealm.net/?p=866#comment-34770 As revgeorge notes, context is absent in the summary. Take fact and mystery, as you mention. I prefer mystery in the Sacred Liturgy, but I much prefer fact in the courtroom. Christ seemed to prefer a superabundance of bread and wine (Jn 6:1-14, Jn 2:1-11) but when it came around to swords, he stuck to sufficiency (Lk 22:38). He also said "Be perfect" (Mt 5:48), not "do what is convenient" WRT personal holiness. However I agree that conservatives are well not to wait around for perfection in political candidates. (My wife and I also prefer the convenience of disposable diapers to the perfection of 100% cotton.) Most dichotomies do make it difficult to judge things according to their merits or even, in a more abstract philosophical mode, to place things into proper relations and hierarchies. In general, I think I know what M.O. is summarizing; he was totally against Marxian and Socialist thought. So this summary is mainly anti-utopian and worthy of meditating upon--my opinion. I don't know much else about Oakeshott's philosophy, except that he's Andrew Sullivan's fave philospher and he was a brilliant professor who declined to be knighted in England. But who would want to be knighted after Elton John? As revgeorge notes, context is absent in the summary. Take fact and mystery, as you mention. I prefer mystery in the Sacred Liturgy, but I much prefer fact in the courtroom. Christ seemed to prefer a superabundance of bread and wine (Jn 6:1-14, Jn 2:1-11) but when it came around to swords, he stuck to sufficiency (Lk 22:38). He also said “Be perfect” (Mt 5:48), not “do what is convenient” WRT personal holiness. However I agree that conservatives are well not to wait around for perfection in political candidates. (My wife and I also prefer the convenience of disposable diapers to the perfection of 100% cotton.)

Most dichotomies do make it difficult to judge things according to their merits or even, in a more abstract philosophical mode, to place things into proper relations and hierarchies. In general, I think I know what M.O. is summarizing; he was totally against Marxian and Socialist thought. So this summary is mainly anti-utopian and worthy of meditating upon–my opinion. I don’t know much else about Oakeshott’s philosophy, except that he’s Andrew Sullivan’s fave philospher and he was a brilliant professor who declined to be knighted in England. But who would want to be knighted after Elton John?

]]> By: revgeorge http://perilousrealm.net/2009/05/23/a-conservative-is/comment-page-1/#comment-33946 revgeorge Fri, 29 May 2009 06:35:31 +0000 http://perilousrealm.net/?p=866#comment-33946 Actually, I might take issue with all the dichotomies, since I don't know the context of the quote or the quoter. Actually, I might take issue with all the dichotomies, since I don’t know the context of the quote or the quoter.

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