Fighting On Two Flanks

No.165: June 23, 2023

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I have taken a long hiatus from writing about Christian Nationalism and the “post-liberal” right. You may recall I wrote a review of Stephen Wolfe’s The Case For Christian Nationalism back in November, and then followed up with a reply to his attempt at a response months later.

He, of course, is still at it, pontificating endlessly on Twitter. Like this gem from a couple of days ago (with 14,000 views):

Yes, it will be a wonderful and glorious day when we can get back to [double-checks] persecuting Roman Catholics and Jews! Not only is this commentary historically ignorant (or maybe just intentionally revisionist), I want you to note the continued obsession with “core ethnicity” and “ethnic conformity.” Wolfe flirted plenty with white supremacy in his book (taking his cues from Johann Gottfried Herder, the godfather of Germanic obsession with race); he also had a rather noteworthy episode where it turned out his closest collaborator is an open racist; and now he wants to recover our “core ethnicity” and … what? Stick it to the Jews, I guess. That does seem to be the end-point of all German race theorizing, doesn’t it?

There are a couple of famous German leaders who loved Herder, too. Kaiser Wilhelm II said (way before World War One), “Jews and mosquitos are a nuisance that humanity must get rid of in some way or manner.” He added an idea taken all too seriously by a later German Chancellor: “I believe the best would be gas!”

Should we be alarmed? A not-insignificant number of Christian young men continue to lap up this straight-from-the-pit-of-hell ethno-nationalist garbage. Where do you think those 14,000 views came from? That is why I feel the need to chime in from time to time.

But it is a struggle to ascertain just how seriously to take the post-liberals, not just the Stephen Wolfe variety. I’ve sometimes been accused of being “dismissive” of them, which I find somewhat strange given that I wrote a 6,500 word review of Wolfe’s book. But I can see why one might think that. I do think their political aims are utterly ludicrous and scarcely to be taken seriously—if utopia itself has a platonic ideal, a sort of “über-utopia,” this would be it. It is a political program that aims to have a societal wheat field with no weeds in it. Everyone will share the same virtues and goals, and everyone will be directed (i.e., coerced) toward the “common good,” as defined by the Grand Poobah who lucks into the role. It used to be Leftist progressives trying to “immanentize the eschaton,” to use Eric Voegelin’s phrase. Now the Right wants in on that action.

And that’s what the workers in Jesus’ parable wanted to do, too. Noticing the weeds springing up in the wheat field, they asked, “Do you want us to go pull them up?” The master replied: “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn’” (Matthew 13:24ff). It strikes me (as it struck Abraham Kuyper) that there’s some political philosophy embedded in this parable.

Add to the utopian fantasy the fact that there is no actual plan to achieve these political aims. “Seize power” and wield it for the “common good.” It’s all sloganeering, just pie-in-the-sky abstract theorizing. For all of Wolfe’s incessant talk about being grounded in “earthly” rather than heavenly realities, he could not be more detached from the ground. Let me know when these guys elect a dog catcher.

I am not the only one to struggle with how much time to expend on post-liberalism. Notre Dame political philosopher Patrick Deneen recently published Regime Change, a follow-up volume to his controversial How Liberalism Failed. Jonah Goldberg took the time to review it for the Acton Institute: “Patrick Deneen’s Otherworldly Regime.” It is absolutely devastating. And then I came across another review by Reason magazine’s Stephanie Slade: “Liberalism Isn’t Rule By Elites.” If possible, it is even more devastating.

And then, serendipitously, Jonah Goldberg had Stephanie Slade as his guest on his podcast where they continue eviscerating post-liberalism. And they had the same conversation I’m having with myself here. Jonah isn’t sure how seriously to take all of this stuff. And Stephanie noted that there are a lot of zealous and immature young people taking it seriously, and a lot of them are ambitiously seeking platforms and roles in our cultural institutions. We cannot afford to not deal with post-liberalism. We conservatives are fighting on two flanks: left and right.

I agree with Stephanie. But I don’t engage these issues because I think I am going to convince those who cannot be convinced. I mean, Patrick Deneen and Adrian Vermeule & Co. (oh, and Stephen Wolfe) constantly get eviscerated in columns and essays and Op-Eds and book reviews and they simply do not care. They are not engaged in honest intellectual debate. They are engaged in platform building and marketing. As I noted in my book review, I’m engaging these issues because I’m trying to discourage the naïve souls tempted to join their Children’s Crusade.

In light of that, I’m happy to let you know that The Center For Cultural Leadership is releasing later this year an edited volume on the free and virtuous society—not just as a counter to post-liberalism, but hopefully to provide a positive vision for classical liberalism, which we believe to be a fruit of Christendom itself.

Finally, if these issues do interest you on a more academic level, the Notre Dame Law Review recently published a symposium on Christianity and classical liberalism. It is full of outstanding contributions from some first-rate political philosophers, and all of it can be accessed for free. Just click here.

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Thank you for reading The Square Inch Newsletter. Stephen Wolfe can get 14,000 people to read noxious Tweets about the glories of “ethnic conformity” (in the name of Jesus, no less!). Why not help get that many reading The Square Inch? Subscribe today, and share widely with your friends using the referral button at the bottom! Have a wonderful weekend.