RIP Sir Roger Scruton
Among the tributes listed there I think the one I like best is by Boris Johnson: “We have lost the greatest modern conservative thinker – who not only had the guts to say what he thought but said it beautifully.”
And here are some of Scruton’s best quotes:
A writer who says that there are no truths, or that all truth is ‘merely relative,’ is asking you not to believe him. So don’t. Deconstruction deconstructs itself, and disappears up its own behind, leaving only a disembodied smile and a faint smell of sulphur.
Intellectuals are naturally attracted by the idea of a planned society, in the belief that they will be in charge of it.
It is not the truth of Marxism that explains the willingness of intellectuals to believe it, but the power that it confers on intellectuals, in their attempts to control the world. And since…it is futile to reason someone out of a thing that he was not reasoned into, we can conclude that Marxism owes its remarkable power to survive every criticism to the fact that it is not a truth-directed but a power-directed system of thought.
The disposition, in any conflict, to side with ‘them’ against ‘us’, and the felt need to denigrate the customs, culture and institutions that are identifiably ‘ours’. Being the opposite of xenophobia I propose to call this state of mind oikophobia, by which I mean (stretching the Greek a little) the repudiation of inheritance and home.
Leftwing people find it very hard to get on with rightwing people, because they believe that they are evil. Whereas I have no problem getting on with leftwing people, because I simply believe that they are mistaken.
The contradictory nature of the socialist utopias is one explanation of the violence involved in the attempt to impose them: it takes infinite force to make people do what is impossible.
The fictions were far more persuasive than the facts, and more persuasive than both was the longing to be caught up in a mass movement of solidarity, with the promise of emancipation at the end. My father’s grievances were real and well founded. But his solutions were dreams.
Absolutely love the first quote. A good question for post modernists is, “Is it true that there’s no such thing as truth?”
Doug Purdie:
If I’m not mistaken, I believe the post-modernist response goes something like this: “There are only competing truths, and power differentials. Because there is no real truth, the important truth – the one we must credit – is the one from those not in power, those who have the most intersectionality.”
I am deeply saddened at this loss.
Wonderful quotes. I did not recognize the name. Apparently, he is someone I should read.
I’m also so sad that the world has lost Roger Scruton. He is (was) irreplaceable. There could never be a Roger Scruton school of thought. There was only his remarkable, capacious, brilliant mind. And his writing.
Fifteen years ago (or so) he gave a talk at Rice, where my husband teaches. I got to sit next to him at dinner, and he was as charming and courtly as he could be. For years after that I had such a crush on him!
I recommend his memoir, Gentle Regrets
mizpants:
Wow, what a wonderful experience that dinner conversation must have been.
the longing to be caught up in a mass movement of solidarity
To dance in a circle, in other words.
Neo,
Wish I could remember it better. All I can bring back is that he was concerned about the monkfish I ordered, which was very tough.
Interesting piece on him — “Roger Scruton: Life of a contrary don”; a small bit of it:
“… leaving only a disembodied smile and a faint smell of sulphur.”
Very nice quote. I just finished watching “Alias Nick Beal” which is a version of “Faust” updated to 1949, with Ray Milland wonderfully playing Satan.
Years ago I frequented a blog where one of the commenters was advocating for the relativity of truth. I asked him if it was absolutely true that the truth was relative or only relatively true that the truth was relative. I forgot his response.
For a long time, I’ve agreed with “left thinks right is evil while right thinks left is wrong”. But I think the right has given the left too much benefit of the doubt. The left may not be all evil but is proving to be significantly so.
PowerLine had some good tributes to Sir Roger, as did many other conservative sites.
I had not heard of him until the dust-up on the withdrawn appointment to a board for building better buildings in Britain, which demonstrated the fullest depth of craven bending to mob rule over fake cries of raaaaaacisssst.
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/apr/10/roger-scruton-calls-for-dismissal-islamophobiad-soros-remarks
Matthew Continetti’s is good, especially on Scruton’s conversion to conservatism.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/roger-scrutons-inferno/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=top-bar-latest&utm_term=third
Roger Scruton (BBC Scotland, 58:58): Why Beauty Matters
(YouTube)
Sir Roger was a significant positive influence on the anti-commie Samizdat dissident movement in Czechoslovakia. Smuggling books and giving quick lectures. He was briefly arrested in 1985 for this activity.
The ’91-92 Slovak Prime Minister, Jan Carnogursky, was a friend and in frequent contact with him. It was a pleasure and honor to be at their meeting before Christmas, ’91, at Magdalen College, Oxford where there was discussion of Czech and Slovak relations. (Czech, 4% unemployment; Slovakia 12%).