As we look upon our own societies with an ever-decreasing patience at the loss of religious values, we must collectively re-assess our city walls. Are the cracks merely contained to the surface, or does our city lie in ruins?
If journalism helped Scruton to synthesise ideas in a single thought, it also displayed the rich literary gifts which first brought him to the attention of the British public in the 1970s. For him, journalism was much more than conveying information, news, or opinion. It was an attempt to stir the imagination of the reader so that the ‘unfashionable opinion’ being expressed might become theirs.
That is what the world is desperately yearning for, which is why people still flock to their churches to kneel down and kiss the Cross on Good Friday. Most may not fully understand why they are there, but they know that Christ did not give his life so that we would remain the same. He gave his life so that, having crucified the old self, the burden of bondage would be lifted forever.
In our own time, we have seen the rise of calls for Burkean ideals on the Left. Think only of the Social Democrats in the UK, a party that had some influence in the 1980s but are almost entirely unknown today, who are against the wokeism dominating the current political debate, and who seek to preserve local customs, and use the very conservative sounding slogan “family, community, nation” as their header on their website.
If conservatism is about love for the society that is ours, what are conservatives to do when they look around and find their society increasingly unlovable?
