Counter-Revolutionary
Writing by abuhatem on Thursday, 22 of May , 2008 at 10:26 pm
I have blogged on this before, but more thoughts.
Samuel Huntington wrote many years ago that (classical) conservatism was the only political theory which did not truly have an ideology or a vision of a perfect society it strove for. He wrote that the opposite of conservatism was not liberalism or socialism, it was radicalism, for the core of classical conservatism is the opposition to revolutionary change and the preservation of tradition (amongst other things).
The benefits of being a counter-revolutionary are very important. Edmund Burke’s entire Reflections on the Revolution in France is a exposition of the detrimental qualities of revolutions and how they destroy man and human nature. The revolution based in such ideals as liberty and human rights ended up creating a Jacobin dictatorship’s secular religion and the first historical instance of government terrorism in Robespierre’s Reign of Terror. Burke adds, and you guys already had a constitution! Joseph De’Maistre, the Catholic Burkean and counter-revolutionary in the French revolution perhaps said it best, “The Counter-Revolution will not be a reverse revolution, but the reverse of a Revolution.”
The central theme of classical conservatism is that for change to be effective and beneficial it must be weeded out through the natural mechanism of tradition. This has been understood in many times and places in history. Ibn Khaldun understood this very well, he writes on how very upright and religious people have caused immense hardship through violent revolutions against tyrannous rulers. Instead of achieving justice, such upright people inadvertently start civil wars and very rarely succeed at what they do. And if they do succeed, they often have corrupted their souls so much that their rule becomes itself an extension of injustice. St. Thomas Aquinas notes that slaying of tyrannous Princes often does nothing but make things worse.
The Prophet Muhammad, may God bless him and give him peace, forbade revolutions and violent revolts against tyrannous rulers. Instead he ordered Muslims to civil disobedience of such a ruler’s unjust commands, and patience in God.
Thus the “revolutionary mentality” or radicalism is the absolute polar opposite of conserving the natural order. It is for this reason that the revolutionary is always wrong, even when he is right. Revolution is not something good nor something natural it is something unnatural and pathological.
Category: Political philosophy
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