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Entry: The Pragmatism of Russell Kirk Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/the_pragmatism_of_russell_kirk#3594 Post contents: Patrick Royson I thank for correcting me with respect to Kirk and Catholic Social Teaching. I'd like to read Kirk on this and ask Royson to tell me where Kirk wrote about this. Otherwise, it appears that Royson, in attaching me for being off-topic, does not seem to know what the topic is: Russell Kirk. Kirk and his place in intellectual traditions is exactly what I addressed. I might be wrong, but I am on-topic. I thank Mr.Richert for suggesting that Kirk knew the Continentals. As for me being off topic, I refer the honorable gentleman to my previous comment and in my first response my view of pragmatism and Kirk -- also on-topic. To say it again with the typos corrected: "Pragmatism, I would submit is a facade that the 3 movements supra try to use to make reasonable their ideologies. True, Burke and the counter-Revolutionaries were against ideology (another almost meaningless word. Burke used 'armed doctrine'). Still their movement, and Kirk's is an ideology by the European meaning of the word." Pray tell, Mr. Richert, how is the off-topic? I must tell Paul Gottfried that I have not (yet) read his book, largely because I'm a bit short on do-re-mi. Now I plan to beg and borrow to buy it. I shall yield to his view of Calhoun, though I don't see much of the feudal in the Disquisition. I shall re-read it and more Calhoun ASAP. AND I am particularly delighted that Paul Gottfried and I are again on the same wave length. I thank him. Red Phillips has responded with good ideas that are compelling. I thank him and urge him to continue in the same manner. Yes, my argument is that there really isn't a conservative tradition in America, and that Kirk was trying to make one. Mr. Richert's reply to Red is is very good. There are indeed different ProtestantismS in America. I would ask whether after the First Great Awakening, the English Dissenter tradition and the Wesleyan tradition became the dominant one. I know that among us Borderer Backcountry folk ("Scots-Irish), a split took place -- beginning in Ulster -- between "Subscriber" Presbyterian (subscribing to the Westminster Confession) and the "non-Subscribers" who stress "inner light". The former joined those Highlanders dwelling in the Cape Fear River valley and because today's Presbyterian chuches. THe latter later became, in the American Backcountry, Particular Baptists, Methodists, and Free Will (General) Baptists. I thank Mr. Richert. Paul Gottfried's 2nd comment shows him definitely to be in the Continental tradition. When I lived in Germany, German Intellectuals would tell me how Continental they found Eliot and Ezra Pound, and how very English they found Chesterton and C.S. Lewis. I suspect they politely found the latter two too whimsical. Ditto Kirk. Of course, one can mine some gold out of Kirk, Chesterton, and Lewis. Thinkers like Eliot, Maritain, Max Scheler, Wojtyła, or Ratzinger don't require a major mining operation. The gold's right there at hand. Mind you, I do like Kirk. I just wish he were more Continental. Newman's a good mixture of both. Sent at: 2008 09 07