>>> kwalker2 at gte.net 08/08/00 02:17PM >>>
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>CB: Seems like cultural anthropology's concept of culture has taken over
>as the/a predominant paradigm for social analysis. "Culture" is such a
>squishy , maleable concept. What causes a culture to collapse ? Satan ?
>
>Also, isn't it a sort of hopeful sign , a light at the end of the
>rightwing tunnel we are in , that rightwingers _think_ things are going
>bad for them ?
no because i think that the heart of a right wing philosophy is the idea that things have *always* gone bad for them. they've beent rying to stave off social and economic change and that was the heart of conservative politics during the rise of modern political ideologies.
(((((((((((
CB: Oh, thanks. Darn.
But there is an opposite thrust in late 20th Century conservatism in the Spiro Agnew/Reganite bashing of the nattering nabobs of negativism or whatever , no ? Wasn't a key element of conservative revival that America is and is doing great , contra its radical and "liberal" critics ?
Certainly an essential element, definitional even, of conservatism is staving off social and economic change. though.