ex cathedra: Big ideas

Sunday, January 08, 2012

Big ideas

And not from Newt Gingrich.

I much enjoyed talk radio host and constitutional lawyer Mark Levin's Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto and am looking forward to kindling his new book, Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America.

His manifesto made the case that the real issue in US politics underneath the usual Right vs Left divide is Statism, a love of governmental expansion which "big government conservatives" share with liberals/progressives. A quote from the upcoming text shows the same concern.

The Table of Contents indicates a review of utopian politics in Plato, Moore, Hobbes and Marx, then a review of American ideas via Locke, Montesquieu and de Tocqueville, with his own take on the utopian drive. Being a Five, I think I will enjoy this.

When I was a student at Columbia U in the 60's the American "revolution" was looked down upon for being so restrained and un-revolutionary. Just an uprising of the bourgeoisie. Hardly worth even calling a revolution. But the French, now there was a real vision, something really compelling.

Thomas Sowell is an excellent purveyor of insight on this topic. In his Conflict of Visions and The Quest for Cosmic Justice, he points out the utopian drive that always brings about its opposite. John Kekes is on the same page.

And, of course, your humble servant ExCathedra.

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