Bill Buckley bloviates

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

Doug quoted
> Wall Street Journal - December 12, 2002
> 
> To Preserve What We Have
> American Conservatism
> 
> By WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY JR.
> Above all, conservatives tend to intuit that materialist terminology 
> is insufficient to express the depth of American attachments to their 
> ideals. It remains, for some reason, arresting that one speaks of the 
> "sanctity" of life, of our "devotion" to our ideals, of the "holy" 
> causes in which we engage. American conservatives never exclude those 
> who discountenance transcendent perspectives, but we tend to live by 
> them.

And it shows throught his piece - which concentrates on ideas but is
conspicuoulsy devoid of serious consideration of the material conditions
existing in the countries he mentioned.  Another shortcoming is that of
known market failures (due to free rider and information asymmtery
problems) acknowledged serious thinkers (even ion the necoclassical
tradition), but denied by journalistic hacks and ideologues.  Due to
these failures, which can be greatly exacerbated under certain
conditions, "collectivistic responses" and certain degree of coercion
are necessary to maintain stablity (the lack of which would be even more
dterimental to individual well-being than its presence).  But otherwise,
a nice argument, rational and civil - unlike harrangues of many of his
conservative brethern.

Wojtek