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Notes on Neoconservatism
| Article
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11660 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
9 / 1986 |
4,411 Words |
| Author
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Paul Gottfried
Paul Gottfried is a senior editor of the Modern Thought
section of The World & I and author of The Search for
Historical Meaning: Hegel and the Postwar American Right. |
What follows is a revised version of a paper delivered last spring at the Philadelphia Society. Because the paper was intended to stimulate discussion, the major points are provocatively stated. Distinctions are drawn with bold strokes; conservatives and neoconservatives are placed in stark opposition on both practical and philosophic issues.
Although I believe that polarities exist between the two groups, it is equally true that neoconservatives differ among themselves as well as with others. The same types of qualifications should in all fairness be made for the conservatives treated in my paper, though space does not permit me to do it here. Flesh-and-blood conservatives, like their neoconservatives counterparts, are far messier to classify than might be inferred from my presentation.
Might and power, as Machiavelli reminded us, shape human affairs. Both are also relevant to the theme about to be discussed, the rise of neoconservatism as a force on the American Right. Those identified as neoconservatives enjoy demonstrable respect in conservative circles. The Scaife, Smith Richardson, and John M. Olin foundations, all committed to upholding traditional American values, fund their enterprises generously - indeed almost exclusively. Conservative thinktanks, most notably the Hoover Institution, the Heritage Foundation, and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), court neoconservatives celebrities. National Review solicits their contributions. American Spectator and Policy Review feature them with predictable regularity; and the neoconservative publications, Commentary and Public Interest, are often described as the preferred journals of conservative intellectuals. Peter Steinfels The Neoconservatives - whatever its defects – and,
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