Neopopulist Blog

Conservatives are simply a branch of the modern, liberal rationalist tradition, along with liberals proper.  Liberals and conservatives are first cousins debating with each other, vying for dominance within the same family -- the Rationalist family.  After all, all conservatives are classical liberals, and libertarians are explicitly rationalist.  They all believe that authority is still proceeding out of reason.

Of course, neopopulists understand that the great god Reason is dead and generates no authority at all.  It speaks with a multititude of dissonant voices.

Conservatives, like liberals, believe that what it means to win is to dominate on the basis of reason.  But this is just nonsense from a post-modern Neopopulist point of view.  Reason doesn't win anything.  It has no universal, agreed upon standard of what it means to win; no universal standard of rational justification.  One cannot win, politically, culturally, morally, religiously, on the basis of reason alone.  Pure mythology.  Conservatives are repeating the myth of Sisyphus.  It is all a disgusting waste of time and energy from a neopop perspective.

One wins, historically, culturally, politically, on the basis of ordinary language, common sense, and the religious tradition.  That is, one wins on the basis of what is Good, not on the basis of what is rational.  The rational is subject to the Good.  The Good, by definition, is rational.  Neopopulist counter-culture is based first upon what is recognizably good in ordinary language and common sense, and then the realization that the good is the rational.

Rationalism actually demonstrated the primacy of the concept of the good in the Descent of Man by Charles Darwin in which we find the glorification of genocide and eugenics.  No one would consider this rational unless they already considered it good.  Thus, it appealed to Nazis as being entirely reasonable.  Reason cannot be separated from what one thinks is Good.

But reason alone, has no way of defining The Good.  Secular reason separates fact and value.  Only ordinary language, common sense (as the rules determining the proper application of moral terms) and the religious tradition can tell us what is good without intervening ideology which falsifies our knowledge of The Good.  It's the culture stupid.  It's the language, common sense and religion.  It is NOT reason.  Reason is nothing.  Reason is anything.  The Post Modern critique of Reason tells us that it has a billion voices.   It does not have one voice. 

Conservatives are rationalist cuckolds.  It is tempting to simply call them wimps, who choose to continue to debate with the Modern Liberal Rationalist tradition instead of committing real revolution against it.  (We love conservatives, but we also like to challenge them.)  But it is probably more accurate to simply recognize that conservatives are an arm of the Liberal tradition, just a competing tribe within Modern Rationalism.  They think that their experts, their reason, their science, is better than that of the experts, the reason, the science marketed by their "liberal" cousins. 

Conservatives have chosen the most decrepit and discredited weapon of all to fight the battle.  They do not want to overthrow the Modern Liberal Rationalist tradition, they simply want to dominate it with their own set of rationalist ideas.  We neopopulists, predict the fall of the entire tradition.  Conservatism as we know it can no more survive in a post-rationalist culture than liberalism can.  It would be recognized instantly for authoritarian impulses ironically dressed up as libertarianism.  It is not a big fan of democracy.  Given its rationalist republicanism it has not, and could not resist the construction of this tyrant we call the Modern Scientific Republic.

One of the clearest regards in which conservatives demonstrate their subservience to the Modern Liberal Rationalist Tradition is their intellectualism.  They play the game of positioning themselves as superior intellectuals.  This will never capture the popular imagination like a movement which, alternatively, appeals not to intellectualism but to ordinary language, common sense, and the religious tradition.  Intellectualism, ironically, is a logical fallacy which argues that if A is approached in a more critical, "rational" fashion than B, then A is more likely to be true than B.  But obviously, B might be true, and A completely false, and no matter how much A is couched in critical rationalism, leading us away from goodness, away from wisdom.

In the Open Society and Its Enemies, Karl Popper tried to save the Modern Liberal Rationalist Tradition by insisting that "falsificationism" ("critical rationalism") was the universal structure of Reason.  An open society is a society that respects so far unfalsified ideas (traditions).  Some conservatives believe that this approach protects Christianity and free market economics even in a liberal culture. 

But "critical rationalism" has proven to be nothing but an illusion.  Who is to decide what ideas are so far unfalsified or not?  Experts have decided that Darwinism is so far unfalsified (indeed, it cannot be falsified) and that Intelligent Design Theory has already been falsified.  The courts won't let creationism or intelligent design into the public schools based on Popper's critical rationalism even though both are clearly "so far unfalsified".  In other words, critical rationalism has not created or preserved an open society. Rationalism is incapable of preserving an open society.  Only the rejection of rationalism will preserve an open society.  There is no verification or falsification of competing traditions.

This is in fact the conclusion of the post-modern critique of Rationalism.  A tradition cannot be reduced to a single observation statement.  In fact the observations themselves are "theory-laden".

Conservatives, as intellectuals, are ironically unsophisticated.  The paradox of Neopopulism is that it has a much more intellectually sophisticated understanding of intellectualism and rationalism which leads, ironically, to the rejection of both.

Conservatives cannot destroy the Modern Liberal Rationalist tradition while standing inside of it.  They cannot win, and obviously have not won, using reason and intellectualism.  They have failed to ask themselves why it is that the liberal concept of what is good is so dominant.  It is dominant precisely because Conservatives agree that what is good is Reason and Reason first; that reason has authority, more authority than ordinary language, common sense, and the religious tradition.

But, of course, Reason is not intrinsically good.  It is just a pathetic, and very modest tool for securing the coherence of traditions from inside of those traditions.  Reason has no authority.  No authority whatsoever springs from it.  None.  Nada. 

Authority is inherently moral.  If someone says to you, "Jones is a scientific expert", he is saying that Jones ought be be listened to.  But why?  Scientism separates fact and value.  No matter what the rationalist expert says, there is no reason to conclude that we ought to consider it normative.

As long as Conservatives keep talking as if Reason is the highest good, they will make no progress.  The culture will continue to be based on the Liberal Rationalist concept of the good until Neopopulists inspire the people to completely reject this nonsense in favor of ordinary language, common sense, and the tradition. 

Eventually we will even relieve the Christian Academy of all "intellectualism".  It's real mission is to simply hold Rationalism by the nose and kick its ass, every day, 365 days a year, until the culture is completely anti-rationalist and sincerely democratic.