Bekenntnis eines Konservativen

... nannte sich ein Artikel auf Morgenländers — mittlerweile für den allgemein Zugriff leider geschlossenen — »Notizbuch«, bestehend aus einem Zitat von Evelyn Waugh, das es verdient, mit Ruhe und Überlegung immer wieder gelesen zu werden:

I believe that man is, by nature, an exile, and will never be self-sufficient or complete on this earth; that his chances of happiness or virtue, here, remain more or less constant through the centuries and, generally speaking, are not much affected by the political and economic conditions in which he lives; that the balance of good and ill tends to revert to a norm; that sudden changes of physical conditions are usually ill, and are advocated by the wrong people for the wrong reasons; that the intellectual communists of today have personal, irrelevant grounds for their antagonism to society, which they are trying to exploit.

I believe in government; that men cannot live together without rules but that these should be kept at the bare minimum of safety; that there is no form of government ordained from God as being better than any other; that the anarchic elements in society are so strong that it is a whole-time task to keep the peace.

I believe that inequalities of wealth and position are inevitable and that it is therefore meaningless to discuss the advantages of their elimination; that men naturally arrange themselves into a system of classes; that such a system is necessary for any form of cooperative work, more particularly the work of keeping a nation together.

I believe in nationality; not in terms of race or divine commissions for world conquest, but simply this: mankind inevitably organizes itself into communities according to its geographic distribution; these communities by sharing a common history develop common characteristics and inspire a local loyalty; the individual family develops most happily and fully when it accepts these natural limits.

I do not think that British prosperity must necessarily be inimical to anyone else, but if, on occasions, it is, I want Britain to prosper and not her rivals.

I believe that war and conquest are inevitable; that is how history is made and that is how it will develop.

I believe that Art is a natural function of man; it so happens that most of the greatest art has appeared under systems of political tyranny, but I do not think it has a connection with any particular system, least of all with representative government.

(Robbery Under Law, 1939)  

Wer LePenseurs Blog kennt, wird sofort bemerken, daß — bei grundsätzlichen Übereinstimmungen — viele Gewichtungen hier ein wenig anders gesehen werden. Das macht nichts, denn es ändert an der Richtigkeit der Grundüberlegungen nichts (oder nur marginal wenig).

In  vielem so fern ist  mir Evelyn Waugh in seinen religiösen Anschauungen (bei denen mich manchmal der Verdacht beschleicht, dieser Autor hätte sich mit Aplomb selbst inszeniert, um mit einer Art von intellektuellem »shabby chique« (»römisch-katholisch« hatte im England seiner Zeit ja immer noch ein bisserl den Geruch, das Bekenntnis von im der Vergangenheit verharrenden irischen Dienstboten und Hilfsarbeitern zu sein) ein »Alleinstehungsmerkmal« (wie das neudeutsch so gräßlich heißt!) zu suchen und zu finden. Dennoch: seine Überlegungen zum Konservativismus sind treffsicher und klug gefaßt.

Vielleicht ein Lesetipp (wenn auch nur englisch)? Mexiko und seine »institutionalisierte Revolution« kommen darin nicht gut weg. Nicht ohne Grund ...