To me the most important thing about conservatism then and conservatism now was not Ronald Reagan frankly, it was not politicians, it was a body of ideas. And to me the core principle underlying the libertarians and the conservatives is the principle of epistemological modesty. There are limits to what we can know and understand. The world is simply too complex to plan, too complex to think we can understand it. So we have to respect the institutions that have grown up and stood the test of time. We have to respect the truths that have evolved over the centuries and have been learned and passed down to us. And I think that principle which is the principle of Edmund Burke and Michael Oakeshott and others is the essence of everything conservatives do.
-- David Brooks
Break your neck and listen to this piece by David Brooks.
Hilarious. Insightful.
This is one of those moments where I get a bit frustrated and angry because I have had to take a whole hell of a lot of time figuring out how my own thinking has evolved to come to these same conclusions. I might have been introduced to Michael Oakeshott a long time ago and saved a lot of time.
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