In Weaver’s estimation, this is where the traditional American had to make his stand.
This is precisely the goal of the left, the reformer, the progressive, and Weaver–in 1960–warned against a particular type of radical, one who would “get control of the state to make all men equal or to make all men rich, or failing that to make all men equally unhappy.” The state then becomes the instrument to drive the rest of America to radical’s Utopian dream, or for the conservative and libertarian, a dystopian nightmare. Weaver defined a “conservative” as “a realist, who believes that there is a structure of reality independent of his own will and desire.” That reality is determined by “a creation which was here before him” and that will exist long after he is gone, a reality that is regulated by human experience and independent of the individual and while not hostile to the individual “cannot be changed radically and arbitrarily.” Most important, “man cannot make his will his law.”
The “conservatives” and “libertarians” in Weaver’s essay are the so-called “paleoconservatives” and the Right Libertarians like Murray Rothbard, Ron Paul, Lew Rockwell and others.Īnd indeed, both of these groups do have much in common, as Weaver illustrated in this beautiful essay. Weaver would not have found much in common with modern neoconservatives nor would he agree with left libertarians. The current internal warfare in both conservative and libertarian camps makes this essay relevant.
Most people considered Weaver to be a “conservative,” and he accepted the term, but he also thought American conservatives and libertarians had much in common and should work together for a common goal: liberty. In 1960, the great Southern political philosopher Richard Weaver penned an essay titled “Conservatism and Libertarianism: The Common Ground.”
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