While I would be consigned to the political Right given the absurdly Leftist bias of our contemporary culture, I would argue the Rationalism [common sense] of my “conservatism” places me emphatically in the Center.
Bill Maher, who still refers to himself as a “liberal,” never stops fulminating against the irrationality that seems to pervade the political Left. He would no doubt argue that the woke dementia he so despises is a perversion of his world-view, but I would suggest it is the inevitable result of the irrationality that in fact defines it. As I have mentioned repeatedly, “intellectuals” such as John Ralston Saul actually celebrate their devotion to Feeling over Reason. Whether he likes it or not, I would suggest Maher’s devotion to common sense actually makes him a “conservative.”
Few on the Left are prone to defending Capitalism, but in a statement recently posted by Prager U., Maher staunchly supports it, ridiculing the fact that 36% of Millenials polled think America would be wise to embrace Communism. Seemingly accepting, as do I, that the imperfections of Capitalism are the inevitable result of the imperfections of Human Nature, he chides the stupidity of a generation apparently ignorant of the horrors wrought by the totalitarian powers granted to various 20th Century Communist regimes in the supposed interest of Humanity.
I am reminded of Mark Bauerlein’s 2008 book “The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes our Future.” While I treasure my computer as an endless source of information, for many of the young the technology in question has become an avenue of escape from Reality rather than a vehicle to it. But the technology is not the problem. It is our Culture and the “intellectuals” who inform it who have created a world in which self-indulgence [i.e., catering to one’s feelings] has come to supersede a rational, informed awareness of the facts of both History and Human Nature. Man’s integrity as an Intelligent Being now being dismissed as a mere Western bias, our young are apparently more interested in the exploits of the Kardashians than the more ponderous issues of human existence.
Maher would no doubt agree with all this just as I agree with most of what he says. But I would suggest that if he is truly honest, he might even admit that he is in fact a “conservative,” one who sees Man as a Moral Being fully responsible for his actions rather than a helpless Victim of Circumstance. Yet labels, I suppose, are ultimately not that important, just so long as common sense continues to be our beacon to a more civilized future.