Conservatism and the Long Defeat
Written by Mark Harris on February 11th, 2007RESOLVED that conservative thought is and always will be about the fighting of the “long defeat”. Discuss.
“…through ages of the world we have fought the long defeat.” - Galadriel (Lord of the Rings)
“Actually, I am a Christian, and indeed a Roman Catholic; so that I do not expect ‘history’ to be anything but a ‘long defeat’ - though it contains some samples of final victory.” - JRR Tolkien
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Dude… what the heck are you talking about? Didn’t we say that posting on your blog while high was a bad plan?
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Heavy topic . . . and no, there is no long defeat. You could see of course how an Englishman watching the end of his empire might come up with that little theory of how the world works. As a Catholic I see no long defeat before me, only God’s will.
Conservative thought is very much in rhythm with the natural cycles of death and life that exist in all things and all times. Empires are born and they die, ideas, even powerful ideas can vanish for a time and be reborn, but humanity goes on and always has. One day we could become as extinct as the dodo and life on this planet could end, but as a Christian I would expect that existence itself will go on for as long as God wills it to.
What examples of a “long defeat” do you see to justify such a theory?
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I believe people are confusing what Tolkien clearly meant. He did not mean we were headed towards some kind of eternal long defeat, however, he did believe that we were in the process of a earthly long defeat.
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It is hard for me to come to that conclusion as well Mark. I mean I can see an English long defeat or an American long defeat, but humanity as a whole in some form or another continues to thrive despite our best efforts.
Would the idea of a long defeat had much currency in 112 AD at the height of Roman power under Trajan? What about by 600 AD after the fall of Rome and the end of classical knowledge for hundreds of years? I think it very much depends on the age you live in and the state of your society. I think a long defeat towards barbarism would look like a certainty in 1000 AD with the Vikings looting what was left of Europe and Islam controling Spain, the Holy Land and knocking on the door of Byzantium. If you were Chinese however the Tang Dynasty was flourishing and the long defeat would have sounded like a bad memory of the Xiongniu
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注意拼音！你的意思是匈奴吧！
Rule #1: Do not mess with the huns.
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I would have thought this would’ve been right up Woodroe’s ally.
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Andrew would have posted three follow-up comments, lol! I am always amazed at the high China-IQ on this blog.