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Entry: The Rise of the Post-paleos (a second look) Link: http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/the_rise_of_the_post_paleos_a_second_look#30743 Post contents: Paul Gottfried makes some excellent points, as does William; I think the correct approach would involve the recommendations and advice of both. My experience is that what we term "paleosconservatives" (and I specifically do not include "paleo-libertarians" in this category) include a motley crew of "old right" anti-imperialists, anti-"big government" types, conservative states' rights Southerners, traditionalist Catholics, Kirkian traditionalists, and others, including those who hearts are with the Habsburgs and Wittelsbachs... From this congerie the one major thing we all have in common is this: we oppose fervently the designs of the neo-conservatives, and that is because: either we oppose their insane foreign intervention, or perhaps it is an opposition to the abolition of (what's left of) the Constitution, or perhaps because we believe that the secularization of America has brought with it a precipitous decline, or perhaps because we believe that the destruction of the rights of the states and or local communities (and their rights and customs) has destroyed our regions and our Republic. Or, perhaps we hold most or all of these beliefs.... While cultivating a strong intellectual discourse (and Paul Gottfried, the late Sam Francis, and others writing on Takimag, in Chronicles, and in a few other journals have done that), we cannot forget that practical success, at least in the United States, must come, so it seems to me, with popular support. A few well-schooled intellectuals talking among themselves, however much delight that might give, will get us nowhere. That is why individuals such as Pat Buchanan have been and are so important to us (and indeed we saw what the two major political parties and the dominant media did to him in 1992, '96, and 2000), and why such newer practical political leaders, like perhaps Congressman Walter Jones, need to be "connected" to what goes on here at Takimag and in the other sparse "paleo" (or "post-paleo") sites. One last point: I don't think nostalgia is a real danger. Yes, traditionalists, by their very nature, tend to look to the past, to the days of kings, crusades, or of the great statesmen who once led or fought for this decrepid republic, Washington, or a Robert E. Lee, for instance. There is nothing wrong with venerating our heroes and holding them up as models for our lives and present crusades, nor it there anything wrong with suggesting the the Habsburg monarchy of Franz Joseph I was a much nicer place in which to live, and suggesting that a restoration of the ideas and institutions (and families) that helped create such countries is a good thing...as long as we are realists about it. Indeed, drawing inspiration from Wilhelm Riehl's ideas on guilds and federalism or von Radowitz (during post-Napoleonic Prussia)on distributive justice and tradition, why, these are good things. I certainly realize when I view the famous "Sisi" movies, made in the late '50s, that those days of Habsburg glory are gone....but to paraphrase T. S. Eliot, there is never really any "lost" cause because there is never really any "gained" one. If viewing the Sisi movies (which glorify the Habsburg monarchy) can inspire us hic et nunc, then good for them, and good for historical memory, and even for a smidgen of nostalgia. Sent at: 2008 12 02