> Didn't WFB tell Lingua Franca before its demise that if he were a young
> today, he'd be a socialist, maybe even communist? There's long been a
> weird fascination with the sexy world of socialists by public members of
> the right, doubtless colored by the likes of Burnham and Chambers in their
> early ranks. Buckley's resisted this since forever, but in recent years
> he's clearly loosened up. For whatever that's worth.
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Of course, this is a virtual cliche among conservatives, especially among
their intellectuals. I think it was Churchill who reputedly said "a young
man who isn't a socialist hasn't got a heart, and an old man who is a
socialist hasn't got a head", which seems to be the sentiment Buckley is
echoing. As you note, a lot of right-wing ideologues began on the left, and
these comments about the inevitable "maturation" from left to right are
mostly a form of self-justification, although I think there is more than a
kernel of truth in the observation that as people gain more experience in
society, their appreciation of its structural and inherited constraints -
what Marx called "the same old crap" - can temper their earlier idealist
convictions that all is possible simply given sufficient will.
David Horowitz is a nasty contemporary example of someone who has travelled the long distance from far left to far right. Hitchens may become another, although I hope and don't think he's moved that far yet, even though his Islamophobia and corresponding support of US imperialism have put him in bed with some strange fellows. But, in Hitchens' case, I think you're an old buddy of his, unless I've confused you with someone else on the list, who would know more than I about how far down this road he's gone.