Not sure how many friends this column will make me among the new-right conservatives, or the few neo-conservatives, in the Brown Right. But, I was proud of my defense of the Puritans, especially against the charge (often repeated by Roman Catholic conservatives) that there is a logical transition from Protestantism to progressivism. My overarching argument is that the Puritans were in fact highly conservative (and therefore great lovers of liberty), despite the ostensible radicalism of some Anabaptists who made common cause with them; and that the real legacy of the Puritans is individualism and the celebration of non-conformity.
The French revolutionaries — who, I might add, only became as radical as they did out of [extreme] reaction to the authoritarianism of the Roman Catholic establishment in France — and the 19thC/20thC Marxists, were in fact the ones who threw a monkey wrench into history. Now, I have my problems with Roman Catholicism, especially as it existed in the Middle Ages, but I would always prefer to live under its control than under the control of an atheistical, collectivist Marxism. (I have made these feelings known to my Roman Catholic friends on many occasions.) Of course, a Protestant-inspired, Anglo-American constitutional Republic is best of all.
Competing historical interpretations welcome, but this particular issue always seems to get personal.
Guy Fawkes Day approaches…
SBQ