CAN AMERICANS THINK OF THEMSELVES AS PART OF A CIVILIZATION

Drew Maciag, Edmund Burke in America: The Contested Career of the Father of Modern Conservatism (Ithaca & London: Cornell U. Press, 2013) ("Today ignorance of history is one of society's chief maladies. Another is the increasing unwillingness of individual Americans to think in terms of belonging to a civilization, not just to an interest group, a religious or sexual persuasion, a regional identity, a racial or ethnic hyphenate, and ideological camp, a lifestyle category, a generational cohort, an economic class, a vocational specialty, or a cultural profile--all of which are consciously intended to divide persons into incompatible subsets. A great nation's goal should be the preservation and advancement of a civilization that is pluralistically dynamic yet cohesive enough to instill a common sense of purpose. Instead, America's current impulse toward fragmentation seems to be yielding not civilization, but a polycentric society that is incapable of finding common ground or agreeing on common goals." Id. at 239. "Even before the terms themselves came into general use, their generic profiles were evident. In ideal (almost impressionistic) forms: Conservatism houses a general preference for order, stability, hierarchy, religious orthodoxy, institutional authority, social conformity, property rights, discipline, and established cultural standards. Liberalism houses a general preference for innovation, progress, fairness, reform, democracy, equality, equity, humanitarianism, flexibility, tolerance, personal fulfillment, and experimentation. Each of these constituent values is itself open to interpretation, and not every value applies (or applies with equal weight) to all conservatives or to all liberals; moreover, conservative-liberal distinctions are usually drawn by de-emphasizing opposing values, rather than by rejecting them outright. Still, these two alternative value systems--whether functioning as clear ideologies or as diffuse sensibilities--have driven the core disputes of American political thinking for over two centuries." Id. at xii.).