The New Conservatives: A Critique from the Left
Vree, Dale
Book Review/Dale Vree Counterattack of the Radicals • • Beginning in the middle-to-late 1960s the liberal intellectual community split into radical-liberal and moderate-liberal camps, with the...
...Those who recognize the natural, inherent inequality and selfishness of human beings will find no cause to worry on this score (although there may be other grounds for worry...
...Norman Podhoretz, the editor of Commentary, is one example...
...On the other hand, he would surely be appalled to see a 'conservatism' like ours: devoid of all tradition, contemptuous of the society's history, using its traditions of constitutional liberty only as propaganda slogans while readily sacrificing them in the name of law and order...
...In "The Roots of Conservatism," lanna Fenichei Pitkin gives us a searchig critique of the thought of Michael -akeshott...
...Although it is debatable to what extent this charge fits the work of Clark Kerr, Talcott Parsons, Daniel Bell, and Herman Kahn and Anthony J. Wiener (as Goldthorpe contends), there is certainly an element of truth here...
...Regrettably, the counterattack is haphazard...
...The society of across-the-board equality of results (where the superior piano player must wear heavy mittens so as not to intimidate the great mass of inferior piano players—see Kurt Vonnegut, "Harrison Bergeron," in Welcome to the Monkey House [Dell, 1970]) would be manifestly unjust—for precisely the reasons Aristotle outlined long ago in his Politics...
...If Charles Kadushin's study of elite intellectuals is a reliable guide, the radicals won a significantly larger number of prestigious intellectuals to their side than did the moderates (see The American Intellectual Elite [Little, Brown, 1974], pp...
...The New Conservatives is a mixed bag...
...The eminent sociologist and classically liberal economist, Vilfredo Pareto, taught us this long ago...
...Although Epstein does not elaborate, it would be well to point out to orthodox leftists that much of the hostility of the new conservatives to the current Left is rooted in a radical, social democratic distaste for irresponsible elites of all kinds—particularly, at this point in American history, the ascendant elite of New Class intellectuals and professional people—or, more simply, the "verbalists...
...Would that he had explained why...
...From a logical point of view, the radical cannot be defeated—even though his position smacks of infinite regress and even though his data base will likely by narrower than that of Glazer et al...
...One thing that old conservatives (especially some Straussians and traditionalists) can learn from the social science-oriented new conservatives—and from those radicals who attack social science for being "conservative"--4s that neither social science nor the positivistic epistemologies which undergird social science must be seen as necessarily inimical to the politics of conservatism in the broadest sense...
...Furthermore, those who are talented (such as politicians or lawyers) should not for that reason be made rich—a sentiment now given some respectability by California's maverick Governor Brown...
...But let us not forget that radicals also generalize from a narrow data base when they see fit...
...According to Walzer, different goods should be distributed to different people for varying reasons—sometimes merit and talent, sometimes need, and sometimes value and duration of labor...
...and not even bolshevism has been able to produce an egalitarian society...
...Already there is (quantitative) evidence that the most prestigious and most productive academic intellectuals are more left-wing than less prestigious and less productive ones (see Everett Carll Ladd, Jr...
...both the quality and relevance of the essays are uneven...
...Unfortu...
...Whereas the opening contributions by Coser and Epstein discuss the new conservative phenomenon in general, the essays that follow—some of which I shall discuss—focus on particular aspects of the phenomenon...
...Just as the privileged lo not have an automatic right to govern ;ociety, the intelligent do not either...
...Both Spitz and Kelman make precisely this point...
...But, on the other hand, we know that inequality of results does undermine equality of opportunity for the simple reason that the well-to-do pass along incalculable advantages to their offspring—to the detriment of everyone else's offspring...
...Says Spitz: "inequalities of result create privileges that vitiate equality of opportunity and thereby render inequitable the results that have in fact emerged and will continue to emerge, and...
...His point is that the value-free discipline of economics plays into the hands of the Friedmanites, and yet somehow most economists are value-laden political liberals of the McGovernite bent...
...If the talented are not out competing for money and property, they will be out competing for esteem, status, influence, power, deference, and the like...
...present and the past...
...Presumah the liberal myth of human equality 24 The Alternative: An American Spectator February 15 thereby dispelled...
...furthermore, as a British subject, akeshott is not responding to those merican events which produced the new )nservatives...
...quent issue (May 28, 1973...
...149...
...1 • Robert Lekachman tells us about the "conservative drift in modern economics...
...The result for American Jewish life will be a "conservatizing of its dominant liberalism" (p...
...They foresee the rise of a conservative Jewish intelligentsia (around such people as Milton Himmelfarb) which will complement the growing conservatism of poorer Jews...
...nately, Coser and Howe did not include the Banfield and Lenkowsky replies...
...Furthermore, says HarThe Alternative: An American Spectator February 1976 23 rington, one cannot generalize about the inherent limits of social policy from the narrow data base of a few flawed efforts...
...30-31), This is perhaps one reason why the moderates have focused so much of their firepower, not only on the ideas of the radicals, but on the "intellectual class" as such...
...Some old...
...s should correlate with wealth and power had better watch out, because perhaps it will be conclusively iemonstrated that the very highest I.Q...
...According to Goldthorpe, future studies have fallen prey to historicism, which is (in Karl Poppers words) "an approach to the social sciences which assumes that historical prediction is their principal aim, and which assumes that this aim is attainable by discovering the 'rhythms' or the `patterns, the 'laws' or the 'trends' that underlie the evolution of history" (Popper, The Poverty of Historicism [Harper & Row, 1957], p. 3...
...once said he would rather be govrned by the first two thousand names in he Boston phone book than by the Hariard faculty, nor that R. Emmett Tyrrell, f r. recently said that any public is better ;erved by its bartenders and morticians han by its pundits...
...As Epstein points out, his hostility to "quotas, the mentality behind the zero population growth movement, the New Left, the New Politics, and that group of moneyed, morally smug, and well-schooled Americans David Bazelon once described as the New Class" is not contrary to his background as a democratic radical" (p...
...Book Review/Dale Vree Counterattack of the Radicals • • Beginning in the middle-to-late 1960s the liberal intellectual community split into radical-liberal and moderate-liberal camps, with the radicals pitching tents in such publications...
...At the end of her esle Alternative: An American Spectator February 1976 25 In the old days, social science and Marxism ("scientific socialism") were, rightly or wrongly, associated in the minds of many...
...Hence, ironitally, we find leftists such as Goldthorpe attacking one of the very cornerstones of classical Marxism, namely, the conviction that the future can be predicted or forecast on the basis of an analysis of the...
...Finally, Oakeshott (as well 3 Pitkin) is a rather traditional political ieorist, unsympathetic to-.the behavioral trust of American social science, whereas Cost of the new conservatives are practicig social scientists...
...109-110...
...tests) is an increasingly importa factor determining one's wealth, stare and power in American society...
...The debate makes it quit clear why those new conservatives wh do not feel solidarity with the rising Ne' Class—especially its HEW branch—wi join with many old conservatives (espt cially the libertarians) in favoring direr payments to the poor, thereby elimina ing many New Class middlemen such social workers and welfare bureaucrats • • • David K. Cohen (a co-author, wi Christopher Jencks, of Inequality) ask "Does I.Q...
...It was lot for nothing that William F. Buckley, fr...
...Nevertheless, those readers who are seriously interested in current partisan controversies among radical-liberal and moderate-liberal (or "neoconservative") intellectuals on issues in political theory, the social sciences, or public policy will surely find here several thought-provoking essays which will command their attention...
...Since this reviewer studied -akeshott under Professor Pitkin, he is mpted mightily to make extended corn-tents...
...To argue for equality of income is not the same as arguing for equality of influence, status, and power...
...If intelligence is used to justify inequality of income and power (that is, if it is said that the lower classes deserve their station because they are stupid—as measured by quantitative techniques), then it will be very difficult to challenge the claim (muted, yet perceivable) by obviously bright New Class verbalists that they deserve the dominant voice in society because of their proven mental abilities...
...Now isn't it odd, and morally implausible and unsatisfying, that all these things should be distributed to people with a talent for making money...
...Neither the best nor the brightest!say, Pitkin briefly states her views on the relation of Oakeshott to the new conservatives: "On the one hand, he shares much with our own new conservatives: a fear of conflict and a quest for stability, a preference for minimal politics without participation or passion...
...While Pitkin is sympathetic to, yet critical of, Oakeshott, she is clearly more sympathetic to his style of conservatism than to the social scientific style of many of the new conservatives...
...Obviously, a perfect equality of opportunity will never exist—and should never exist, since it would require the abolition of the family—but that does not mean that steps should never be taken to limit inequality of results...
...well...
...Matter...
...The elite which probably requires high intelligence (or at least intellectual ability —as demonstrated, say, by the collection of degrees from prestigious institutions of higher learning) more than any other elite is the verbalist elite...
...In our society, says Walzer, "Political power, celebrity, admiration, leisure, works of art, baseball teams, legal advice, sexual pleasure, travel, education, medical care, rare books, sailboats—all these (and much more) are up for sale...
...jects the proposition that America is—is becoming—a meritocratic societ (Again, this volume would have profit if the editors had included Herrnsteit rebuttal—and Cohen's rejoinder—they appeared in the August 1972 issue Commentary...
...Michael Harrington offers a sharp critique of the "limits of social policy" school led by Nathan Glazer, Daniel P. Moynihan, and Daniel Bell...
...antihistorical positivists in education and epistemology...
...Those conservatives who believe high I.Q...
...Those Straussians and traditionalists who reject all varieties of social science—even that neoconservative variety which speaks of the "limits of social policy" and which, in my opinion, is quite critical of the "technological, engineering spirit"—will likely appreciate this essay...
...In the -last essay of the book, John H. Goldthorpe attacks the present state of so-called "future studies...
...We have known for quite a while that the verbalist elite is the most left-wing elite in the country...
...But ultimately, I doubt that conservatives (old or new) are going to get much mileage out of this I.Q...
...FAP (and other Nixon policies) was "liberal" or a "conservative" policy, tha is, whether FAP would have achieved general strengthening of the welfar, state or not, whether it would have pro moted a redistribution of income or not whether it (as an "incomes strategy" was designed to replace or supplemer, the "services strategy" component of th welfare state...
...For example, political office and admittance to medical school should be distributed to those with talent (not according to racial or sexual quotas), medical care to those in need, and rare books and sailboats to those who work for them...
...1 Michael Walzer, David Spitz, and Mark Kelman each contribute essays defending equality...
...Cohen...
...Tyler's piece originally appeared in the New Leader, and received article-length criticism frorr Edward Banfield and Leslie Lenkowsk) (plus a rejoinder from Tyler) in a subse...
...From the contemporary radical's point of view, social science became "conservative" because what social scientists said "will be" was manifestly not what radicals thought "should be...
...A issue in this interesting debate is whethe...
...stupid...
...society must then intervene to redress or even (perhaps) cancel out those privileges so as to restore—ornewly establish—an initial equality of opportunity" (p...
...No more would social science glibly equate "what will be" with "what should be" (as Marxism had done)—although there still arc exceptions to this generalization...
...Ultimately, I fear, this debate cannot be resolved conclusively by appealing to empirical evidence because every time a liberal program fails, there will always be a radical-liberal who pops up and says, "The failure of a few programs does not prove that all programs must fail...
...Despite some oversimplification, Walzer does have a point...
...1* Gus Tyler contributes a rebuttal to Moynihan's book, The Politics of a Guaranteed Income, a discussion of the Family Assistance Plan (FAP...
...Or: The failure of Prohibition proves that the suppression of marijuana or abortion will not work...
...bureaucrats in government, truly en...
...But he will eschew the temptation ecause of limits of space, and because le essay is not very compatible with the ieme of the volume under review...
...And even odder and more unsatisfying that they should be distributed (as they are) to people who have money, whether or not they made it, whether or not they possess any talent at all...
...and Seymour Martin Lipset, The Divided Academy [McGraw-Hill, 1975], chapter 5...
...26 The Alternative: An American Spectator February 19...
...What Walzer does not accept is the assumption that the most talented should have most of the money in society, and that the richest people should have first claim on all the goods and services society distributes...
...He takes issue wi Richard Herrnstein and H. J. . Eysen who argue that intelligence (as measur, by I.Q...
...When the "limits of policy" shoe (or sandal, or hiking boot, as the case may be) fits, radicals will gladly slip it on...
...In the next essay, Bernard Rosenberg and Irving Howe worry about whether the rightward movement of Podhoretz's Commentary (published by the American Jewish Committee) is representative of Jewish sentiments as a whole...
...business...
...Rosenberg and Howe accurately sketch the class cleavage within the American Jewish community—with the poorer, less-educated, and more religious Jews leading the movement to the Right...
...Walzer agrees with the new conservatives (such as Kristol) that talent is distributed uneqpally and that the talented will tend to prevail in any given society...
...In the collection of essays under review here (most of which originally appeared in Dissent), the radicals return fire—and, with a linguistic sleight of hand, burden their moderate opponents with the pejorative label, "new conservatives...
...gaged in 'the politics of empiricism' that sells out the future in return for present private profit or hasty accommodation to the latest civil disturbance" (p...
...Not necessarily—for the issue cannot be sliced so neatly...
...Walzer offers a very thoughtful critique of the new conservatives' defense of inequality of results (as opposed to inequality of opportunity...
...pp...
...Some might object that the argument for greater equality of income and property is an argument for equality of results instead of equality of opportunity...
...You know: The American loss in Vietnam proves that America can never win a war against progressive Third World peoples...
...as the New York Review of Books, the Nation, and Dissent, and the moderates (led by Irving Kristol) pitching theirs in Commentary, the Public Interest, the New Leader (and occasionally in the pages of The Alternative...
...Unlike many of the old conservatives, the new conservatives cannot easily be ignored by mainstream intellectuals, for they simply cannot be dismissed as plutocratic lapdogs and would-be aristocrats out to roll back social democracy and the income tax...
...it appears to be a conservatism arrived at upon disinterested grounds—a conservatism more purely intellectual, and hence more formidable, than any in recent decades" (p...
...s :orrelate positively with leftism...
...The failure of the Great Society programs, argues Harrington, was caused, not by a government that did too much, but by a government that did too little...
...The New Conservatives: A Critique from the Left edited by Lewis A. Coser and Irving Howe Quadrangle $9.95 No...
...Oakehott is an old conservative, not a new ne...
...More perversely, they sometimes feel permitted to chuckle to themselves that the benighted boys in the mischievous trade unions (not to mention some nonwhite races) deserve their lot—perhaps deserve even less—because, after all, they are...
...If only you will try harder (and spend more money) you will at last succeed...
...Likewise, orthodox rightists should be warned that the new conservatives may not be willing to make common cause with them simply for the sake of returning this country to the money-worn clutch of the entrepreneurial class...
...According to Lewis A. Coser, that mood is broadly Burkean-cum-Niebuhrian 'in that the new conservatives place great stress upon the "recalcitrance of social realities and sinful men"to the efforts of social engineers (p...
...Some conservatives (especially the old-style ones) will howl about ghastly "uniformity" and "loss of incentives" here...
...For our neoconservatives, of course, are Rationalists through and through: idolators of the technological, engineering spirit...
...But, in my view, when they do, they only reveal how shallow their emphasis on natural human inequality and competitiveness really is...
...The new conservatism, in Joseph Epstein's words, "speaks neither in the gruff voice of established privilege nor in the hollow one of aristocratic pretension...
...287...
...Furthermore, many of the new conservatives are former leftists who (unlike many of the old conservatives who once were Marxists) have not entirely disowned their past...
...Perhaps this is partly inevitable since the "new conservatism" is not a systematic political philosophy, but rather a mood of a heterogeneous group of individuals...
...conservatives get grata tion from those such as Herrnstein a Eysenck who argue that human inte gence is unequally distributed a largely a matter of heredity...
...But in the wake of Marxism's failure as a science, more and more non-Marxists took up social science...
Vol. 9 • February 1976 • No. 5
