Ignorance is the source of knowledge, silence is the source of noise, and stillness is the source of change. The emptiness of the future provides the possibility for movement. This is the principle of conservatism: preserving not only possibility, but the very possibility of possibilities. This impulse is conservative, but never at the expense of future generations. Conservatism is the art of living.
And:
According to Okakura Kakuzo's short work, The Book of Tea, this conservative impulse is the "art of being in the world." Isn't this "art of life" precisely the virtue Alasdair MacIntyre claims we have lost in his After Virtue? Humility, gratitude, and the pursuit of virtue affirm nature as normative not because it dictates morality but because it is a gift. Nature surely does not mean to us what it did to the Scholastics, but I wish we could rediscover the earth as our home. The loss of a normative sense of nature has set up the world against the earth in a destructive manner. We can thank the likes of William of Occam, Francis Bacon, and Descartes for the loss of nature and the birth of modern science. It used to be that nature was seen as the artwork of God, as an acheiropoieta (an icon "not made by human hands"). But no longer do we see nature as an icon, giving glimpses of God; instead, we see nature as blocking us from God. Instead of seeing truth through the physical world, fideism sees truth in spite of the physical world and its natural counterpart, atheism, limits truth to the physical world. Speaking of the spiritual realm as "supernatural" is only a step away from speaking of the "unnatural" realm. The natural-supernatural divide has cut off access to God. The death of God followed the death of nature. Before, creation was seen as the art of God; now, creation is dead and so is its Creator.
Front Porch Republic: bless its heart, it ain't Red State.
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Wow! What baloney! Saying "This is the principle of conservatism" is pure ignorance but it doesn't lead to knowledge except in the sense of recognizing crap is crap so you don't need to step in it.
First off, there is no "Zen" teaching that silence is the "source" of noise, except in the general sense that noise is also the source of silence. There can be no recognition of either silence or noise without the activity of the discrimination of mind. But it is also true to say that silence is not the source of noise and noise is not the source of silence as both silence and noise are actually the discrimination of mind. Mind is the source of both silence and noise and this source is not separate from either silence or noise and neither is it the same as silence or noise.
The Zen of conservatism can only be found where conservatism and liberalism, libertarianism and radicalism, all intersect: at the zero point. At the zero point is where you will find the Zen of conservatism, liberalism, libertarianism and radicalism.
I'm with Greg, but let me put it in a different way. I don't see Conservatism, or conservatism, as being the art of living. Makes it sound a bit as if the conservative impulse is the cure for what ails the world, in other words, progressivism is the disease. That could become just a lovely way to deliver Ann Coulter's message! But there's great value here, I think, and it lies in acknowledgment that conservatism and progressivism are expressions of two parts of our nature, both of which are needed. Adopting this viewpoint would allow our politics to be conducted with respect. We should hope! Maybe one day we'll hear Rush Limbaugh say, 'you know folks... you need the stillness between the wave, yes, but you also need the wave'.
It is morbidly, carnival-freakshow-ishly captivating to watch conservatives spin such tales about how deep and thoughtful and majestic their "formless and timeless" ideology is.
It reminds me of nothing more than campus Marxists praising the perfect ideal of communism, which was simply misinterpreted or misapplied by those bad apples Stalin and Pol Pot. Conservatism is exactly like communism, in that it only works in theory. The last 8 years have proven that you don't want to LIVE there. It is a failed experiment with nothing to offer humanity except the bill for the Iraq War. As a great speechwriter once wrote, "history's unmarked grave of discarded lies" and all that.
More much-deserved reality with a very real and tangible form, hopefully deflating the helium of "formless zen," from John Cole: http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=18928
This reminds me of nothing more than campus Marxists insisting that their ideals are perfect and beautiful and were just misinterpreted by those bad apples Stalin and Pol Pot. Conservatism is a failed philosophy, predicated on a failed deregulatory experiment and endorsing failed frivolous wars. It works well in theory, but the last 8 years have shown that you don't want to LIVE there.
As the nation and world suffer from the effects of applied conservative rule, the true believers pat their backs and contemplate their navels.
More actual effects-based reality, hopefully weighing down the helium happytalk of "formless Zen", from John Cole: http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=18928
This is a great analogy. Water is deceptively simple. As a fluid it's governed by a handful of conservation laws and boundary conditions, but, except under relatively simple conditions (laminar flow, shallow water, etc.), we can't even prove that the equations governing water's flow have any solution at all, but we have faith in understanding water.
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