It took less than a week to realize that new conservatives were fashionable, destructive, aesthetically exaggerated, calculationally provocative, and young from Trump’s second presidency.
last week, New York Magazine He ran a cover story about “confidence and casually cruel playing cards” with the headline “Crual Kids ‘Table.” There are decadent house parties, martini lunches and mini skirts. As one observer said, “The massacre is not merely in vain, but also includes ballasts for new possibilities (including cocktails with names like the American massacre, and cocktails containing the second term for Capitol Hill’s new cafe “Butterworth.”
The Liberal Party has seen itself as an elite that should guide the masses towards the salvation of society. Since the turn of the century, their liberal style has become more ironic as their influence has been dulled. Given Chaos and absurdity, some liberals feel that events demand “a new form of integrity.” Continuous irony can lock in emotional separation, and “irony stimulates the song of a prisoner who has come to love the cage.”
Thinkers who knew this situation firsthand will think and remind us that otherwise we are far from ourselves. Alexander Herzen was a 19th century Russian writer and revolutionary. The satire leaves the depths of his beliefs, and his integrity is despicable. Just a few of his comments:
“The public conscience is so waning in Russia that people enjoy the chains as if they were ornaments.” “The nobles have perfected the art of dancing at the edge of the deep by. They toast to the freedom of whispers as they bow to the emperor in public places.” “Our educated classes have developed extraordinary talent. They can read Voltaire at the same time and praise the censorship that bans him.”
“Is a man not so right just because no one agrees with him? And how can universal madness refute personal beliefs?” “The masses are indifferent to personal freedom and freedom of expression. They enjoy authority. Ruling themselves is not in their mind” – but “If people can’t find a way to allow people to survive through their little corruption and joy, then tyranny won’t survive for a month.”
On the Russian bureaucracy: “Russia has two main forces: the dictatorial power of the emperor and the dictatorial power of common sense. Unfortunately, they rarely match.” On the European revolutionaries: “They take their wishes in reality, but the tyranny takes their wishes for their wishes.”
Born in Moscow in 1812, Herzen was imprisoned several times and in 1847 he was forced to exile in Europe. His democratic ideas threatened the emperor’s dictatorship, and his works were banned, but they spread underground. London served as Herzen base for continued political activity and writing.
In his most famous works, From other coastsand his memoirs, My past and thoughtshe wrote about how revolutions become self-devous and how dreams of progress clash with the reality of power. In France he witnessed the 1848 revolution transformed into a dictatorship, which shaped his doubts about the grand scheme.
“It’s time to stop dealing with abstractions, ready-made ideas, and a priori principles. Abstraction is the algebra of revolution, but algebra is not life.” Disillusioned with strict ideological thinking, Herzen emphasized the contradictions of dismantling the state at the same time by using state power to consolidate authority.
Herzen denounces public intellectuals who justified authoritarianism and falls into a “timeless truth” as a moral protection against social dissolution, suffering and saddening along the way. For him, liberation called for skepticism about all absolute systems, whether it was state enforcement or state recording.
Today’s Terms for Ideological Conflicts – “Cancel Culture”, “Awakening”, and even “Culture Wars” grasp fundamentally serious questions: How do ideology harmonize with biological reality? Can addressing historical racism avoid the creation of new forms of discrimination? Has current injustice been justified as compensation for past mistakes? These are both liberals and conservatives, and questions Herzen pushes with a combination of his moral beliefs and measured restraint.
Reflecting historical progress and revolution, Herzen writes: “We need wit and courage while our paths make us. History has no script. We don’t need the past as a sanctuary or prison, not as a lesson, and sometimes as a warning.” In the warning, the Chief is the demographic outfit of the victorious leaders. This is to promote honorable morality and evoke the glory of the past as a promise of the future.
Truly new conservatism can move from self-exploration of the causes and traditions that exist today. This makes liberalism more conservative, descending its own high horse and becoming more attractive. This time it lasts longer than the chic ones that used to be.
Notes and reading
Wilson Carrie McWilliams – Political Moral Philosopher – Oberlin, Rutgers. Carrie was a long-time mentor and best friend. He enthusiastically introduced me to Herzen. I’m grateful.
All Herzen quotes are from My past and thoughts (1870, 1982) and From other coasts (1855, 1979). A powerful introduction by Isaiah Berlin, the number one authority on Russian intellectual history. ”
“Rediscovering Alexander Herzen” – William Grimes, New York Times (February 5, 2007). – Herzen was critical of the close relationship between Russian Orthodox Church and the Tsarist dictatorship, and believed that organized religions were often used to support oppression. He became an advocate for secular humanism.
“We’re hot right now…” – Donald Trump. “Those who want to manage will descend to Mar-a-lago” – Antonia Hitchens, New Yorker (November 22, 2024).
Cultural advantages of new young rights – “The Crual Kids’ Table: Vision Set in America after Conquering Washington”, Block CollierNew York Magazine (January 27, 2025).
Innovative Chic – Political Fashion and “New Forms of Domination” – During the French Revolution (1789-1799), fashion became law under the law of suspects. Citizens showed revolutionary loyalty through perfumes, instead of the noble culottes, short hair, pantalons, plain dresses, and even those bone-in corsets. Fashion evolved before the 1848 revolution, but never returned to its pre-revolutionary excess. Anne Higonet explores this phenomenon in a recent book Freedom, Equality, Fashion: Women who styled the French Revolution (2024). Higonet is Bernard’s art historian.
“Death and dying” -Herzen -Matins, Easter Sunday, 1848. Chapter IV, “Vixerunt!” From other coasts. “Open letter” September 1851:
“The future of Russia is not solely dependent on itself. It is bound by the future of Europe as a whole. Who can predict what is in the store for the Slavic world, should the response to the European revolution and absolutism be triumphed? Perhaps it will perish – who knows? But then Europe will also perish… And history continues in America.”
Tip #188 – Rugged Democracy
Tip Off #187-Kindred Spirits
Approximately 2 + 2 = 5
Source: 2 + 2 = 5 – williamgreen.substack.com
