On Friday, after attending the APSA conference I met up with my friend Kilometers, freshly returned from Central Asia. We journeyed from the posh enclave of Woodley Park down to my 'hood in Arlington. We immediately started talking about Emnity, the End of History, and Liberal Democracy, with me struggling with the question of if I critique liberalism in order to save it or to destroy it (I'm still in the former camp). We were so engrossed in our coversation that when we made the transfer from the Red to the Yellow Line we mistakenly hopped on the Green Line and were quite a few stops down until we realized our error. So we spent more time on the Metro than we expected to, but that was fine since the conversation was good.
Once we finally got off the Metro and hopped on the bus, we were ready for some food and some drink. After discussing "big issues" and after my day hopping around to various lectures and sightings of Important People, I felt like something classy was in order. So I called up Papa John's to order a pizza and cheese sticks with a free pizza coupon in my hand. We ambled down the street to my local BEER WINE store and picked up some Olde English Malt Liquor and Orange Juice and popped in my trusty Old School DVD. After drinking the 40s down to the lable we filled it back up with OJ and continued to eat free pizza and laugh. As I said, it was a classy evening. How could Brass Monkeys and Old School be anything but classy?
We then played Grand Theft Auto until the wee hours. Kilometers is not one to impose so he wanted to go home at 1:30am instead of crashing on the couch. He was planning on catching the last train back, so we said our goodbyes and I settled in for the night. About half an hour later as I was drifting off to sleep I heard a knock on my door. It was Kilometers hanging his head down low and asking if he could stay the night. He had something of a run in on the street while waiting for the bus. It seems that a man came up to him while he was sitting in the bus shelter and said the following: "Hey, I don't want to offend you, but have you ever been with a man? You look pretty good." Now re-read that line was a heavy Spanish accent and you will get the full effect. While Kilmoters was trying to flee this unwanted, but surprisingly polite, attention he missed the bus and thus would miss his last train. Hysterical!
All in all, a classy day.
I did notice that you have been drinking Lillet and Pimm's as of late. You felt like slumming a bit - very Beltwa. It's that Beltway slumming desire that gave us Bill Clinton. Perhaps you'll be the head of the Hillary '08 inniative at school.
Posted by: Mrs. Peperium | 08 September 2005 at 08:44
"the question of if I critique liberalism in order to save it or to destroy it (I'm still in the former camp)."
"Still"? Do I sense a doubt for the future?
Posted by: Blimpish | 09 September 2005 at 01:07
I hate when that happens.
Posted by: Mr. P. | 09 September 2005 at 03:32
Well, Blimpish, the very fact that it is still a question requires that there be doubt for the future. If there were no doubt, there would be no question. I say "still" because at this point I do not see me changing my view on this anytime soon, and doubt that there will be sufficient fodder in my program to change my mind on this.
I've been trying to come up with a word that decribes what I see as the potential solution to rampant modern progressivism and the potential failings of liberal democracy. No doubt one exists out there is the literature and that I only need moer time to find it, but I have been leaning towards paleo-liberalism. It differs from modern libertarianism in many ways and certainly differs from many classical liberal thinkers like Mill. Perhaps Tory Liberalism like that of a Disraeli? I don't know. But the usage of the phrase paleo-conservative provides us a useful distinction with the neo-conservatives, who possibly could be better called paleo-liberals. The Cardinal will probrably agree with that given his slim views of the even growing camp that is today's neo-cons.
Posted by: Misspent | 09 September 2005 at 04:39
Catholicism.
Posted by: Mrs. Peperium | 09 September 2005 at 05:19
I'm no Throne and Altar man.
Posted by: Misspent | 09 September 2005 at 05:32
Who is? Since Franco, anyway.
I don't know, myself. I find it difficult to disaggregate the liberalism of Locke from the liberalism we see today, and I think all fall prey to many of the same criticisms made over the past 100 years. I think you have to distinguish liberality, both as virtue and as instrument, from liberal ideology more generally. Conservatives can be liberal specifically, but I'm not sure we should be in general.
Your point about the neocons is well made: they are conservative liberals, but probably liberals all the same (for the most part, anyway). I'd be wary about drawing much doctrinally from Disraeli - he should be admired for his statesmanship rather than any clear doctrine he expounded, is my guess. After all, he changed radically over the course of his career.
Posted by: Blimpish | 09 September 2005 at 23:31