Intellectuals Idolize Quaint Rural Farms… That They Never Worked On

Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the elite have bashed capitalism for destroying community. You won’t find any of the rural folk who left dreary villages for jobs in urban factories criticizing it; most of it comes from the wealthy elite who owned vast estates while living in the city and who employed many of those who left. Others were intellectual with no understanding of rural life, such as G. K. Chesterton, T. S. Eliot, and Russel Kirk.

Kirk demonstrated in his book, The Conservative Mind, that conservatives have hated industry and revered agriculture since conservatism’s conception by Edmond Burke. They won’t say it, but conservatives want to conserve what they see as the idyllic villages of the 15th century. They think we could have achieved the wealth and health the West enjoys today without industrialization, unless they admire the poverty, disease and violence of that century. I’m not certain which posture best suits them because none have ever written about it.

Will political polarization cause divorce?

A few writers have wondered since the election of President Trump if the country is so fractured that another great divorce like that of the Civil War is in our future. Pew Research has provided the statistics to fuel the debate. Recently, John Hawkins wrote “Do Conservatives And Liberals Have Enough in Common to Keep A Country Together Anymore?” on Town Hall. As if counseling troubled marriage partners, Hawkins asked what we have in common?

The Constitution? Conservatives believe in it. Liberals believe in a “living Constitution” which is fundamentally no different than having no Constitution at all.

Religion? Conservatives tend to believe in Judeo-Christian values. Even atheists who are conservative tend to at least be friendly to those values. Liberals mock Judeo-Christian values.

What about patriotism? Conservatives tend to love their country. Liberals love this country like a wife-beater loves his spouse.