IDEOLOGUES LOATHE FREEDOM BECAUSE UNSUITED TO IT THEMSELVES:

As a first step toward conservative unity, we need a dissection of ideology, with its political fanaticism and utopian schemes. Happily, we have Russell Kirk, an apostle of prudence, to serve as our Virgil to guide us through the Inferno of today's politics.

Ideology, Kirk said, is a political formula that promises "an earthly paradise" but has created in cruel fact a "series of terrestrial hells." Here are its dominant vices:

It is "inverted religion," denying the Christian doctrine of salvation in the afterlife and promising "collective salvation here on earth."

It makes political compromise impossible because the ideologue will accept no deviation from the "absolute truth" of his revelation.

Its proponents vie with one another in fidelity to the Truth and are quick to denounce deviationists, as did the Stalinists and Trotskyites in the past and as progressives and socialists do now. See the differing rhetoric of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren about "Healthcare for All."

In contrast to the inherent flaws of ideology, Kirk outlined the politics of prudence:

Religion is for the soul, not the state. The prudential politician knows that human nature and human institutions are not perfectible: "We cannot march to an earthly Zion."

The prudential politician is well aware that "the primary purpose of the state is to keep the peace," which can only be achieved through a balance among the many interests in society. Prudential politics strives for conciliation, not extermination.

Unlike the ideological politician, the prudential politician rejects the illusion of an absolute Truth, understanding that political, economic, and social structures are developed over the years, even centuries, through trial and compromise.

The conservative mind and the ideological mind stand at opposite poles, and the contest between them, Kirk suggested, may be no less strenuous in the twenty-first century than in the twentieth century, when the Cold War was hot.

Pragmatic Conservatism

With the failure of ideology evident everywhere--from present-day Venezuela and Iraq to the former Soviet Union--how can it retain great power, especially among the intelligentsia? The French philosopher Raymond Aron provided an answer: "When the intellectual feels no longer attached either to the community or the religion of his forebears, he looks to progressive ideology to fill the vacuum." The Swiss theologian Karl Barth wrote that we must set our faces against ideology because it denies "the possibility of truth" in politics or anything else, turning instead to economic motive and class interest. As for the millennials' infatuation with socialism, Kirk conceded that "ideology may enchant young people" who are badly educated and looking for an "exciting and violent cause." That is all the more reason to impart the truth about ideology, which promises utopia but produces serfdom.

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