Irving Kristol has died at age 89.
I began reading Irving Kristol's essays some 20 years ago, and knew that I had encountered an intellectual truly worthy of the designation. His Reflections of a Neo-Conservative is an excellent introduction to that generation of "liberals who got mugged", and traces not only his own journey, but the journeys of many other far-left thinkers, toward the right of the political spectrum.
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The path from youthful socialism to the conservative stances of more experienced citizens is well-trodden. Not making that trek could be a sign of a mis-spent adulthood, or simplicity.
ReplyDeleteThe scorn heaped on "neo-cons" during GWBs incumbency was abundant, but I suspect that it was for the most part heaped by intellects somewhat diminished when compared to Mr Kristol, or to GWB for that matter!
A neo-conservative is not a liberal who has been mugged. He is a liberal who has been mugged by reality. There's a difference.
ReplyDeleteOf course during the Bush 43 Administration the opponents of the horrible Bush tyranny used the term in a somewhat different sense. Too often they meant by it "uppity Jews."
On 9/11/2001 the only people around who seemed to understand what had happened and had any clear and intelligent ideas what to do about it were the Neo-cons. Eight years later that still seems to be the case. The Democrasts certainly didn't then, and don't now.