Hitchens: Prince Charles is a crunchy con
Sunday March 25, 2007
UK conservative columnist Peter Hitchens calls Prince Charles a crunchy conservative. Excerpt:I think that his general view of life is actually quite close to the rather attractive position known in the USA as 'crunchy conservatism', for which I have a...
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About Crunchy Con
Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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With due respect, I think His Royal Highness is a shmegegge of the first order. I grant that he is right on some (crunchy) things, and he is undoubtedly well-educated, but submit he is perhaps the world's most privileged irreflective chump.
God bless you, Starrs, for using Yiddish on this blog!
He's done some "crunchy things" as pointed out above, and he is a con-artist. So yeah, crunchy con, just not the good type.
I'd question his characterisation as a conservative, whether crunchy or of any other variety.
He's known as a stickler for the meaningless royal protocol of deference. He's never had a tough interview in his life. So, it's no wonder that he might describe the position of Britain's rural dwellers as more oppressed than her black or gay citizens, or to lobby the cabinet to make government-owned hospitals buy his own brand of organic food.
Also, he's eager to dismantle the religious structure of the British constitution, to become not the Defender of the Faith, the title first given to Henry VIII, but defender of faith. This is interpreted among London Muslims that I've spoken to as indicating that Charles has covertly converted to Islam.
Frankly, I think none of us have a clue about this man. Having read about his foundation's work, etc., I think it is fair to say he has a crunchy side....and a hunger to be relevant and questioning of modernity-lost-its-way living. But beyond presumptuous supposition, I can almost guarantee that Rod has a better looking wife.
Prince Charles is very underrated.
I can almost guarantee that Rod has a better looking wife. I can guarantee that you have a better-looking wife, Rawlins, and as far as I know you ain't married! But he married her for lurv, which is respectable, even if cheating on the wife you're actually married to isn't.
I've never met him personally, but I consider as friends several people who know him relatively well through their connections with his erstwhile Architecture School. If I had gone to work in London after graduation, I probably would have had the honor, but I couldn't afford to live there. HRH has done a great deal to further the cause of sane, beautiful architecture. For all I know, he's likely a total jerk, but at least he really uses his influence to do something about causes he believes in. That makes him a definite Crunchy Con in my book.
I am no Prince Charles fan. I am much more fascinated that Rod is on CH's radar! Good luck on your next book. And on the purchase of your next car, whatever it turns out to be.
There are many things to admire about Prince Charles, including, but not limted to, the ones listed by Peter Hitchens. But his attitude toward Islam is nothing short of barmy (if I've got the British word right).
I'm not surprised that British Muslims think he has converted to Islam. There's no concrete reason to think this, but the constant posturing by the Prince leads the less reflective to believe this.
Perhaps Charles believes that his unrelenting insistence that Islam is the veritable prize rose in the garden of peace will allow his grandchildren or great-grandchildren to avoid a swift death in a Muslim Britain. Perhaps it will...if the emphasis is put on "swift" rather than "death."
A book that would probably help folks to fix Prince Charles's views is Radical Prince: The Practical Vision of the Prince of Wales, by David Lorimer, published by the New Age publisher Floris ISBN 0 86315 431 X. I haven't read it, but it is reviewed at length in the (London) Times Literary Supplement for 13 Feb. 2004, by Mary Midgeley, under the title "Royal Against the Machine."
By "to fix" I meant "get a fix on," not "amend"!
So calling yourself a tampon in your mistress's pocket is crunchy? I never knew you guys were such partiers!
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