The environment has been an issue monopolized by the Left for decades. At first glance, they appear to have a stronghold on it. But a proper understanding of conservatism should produce a passion on the Right for conserving not just traditional values – but our environment too.
As Sir Roger Scruton pointed out in Confessions of a Heretic, “Environmentalism has the hall-marks of a left wing cause: victims (eco-warriors)…and philistines who exploit them (capitalists).” However, he also noted that the environment is not properly a left-wing cause because it’s not “about ‘progress’ or ‘equality’ but about conservation and equilibrium.”
With trademark lucidity, Scruton delves beneath the surface, examining two motives for conservation. He argues that the environment is an issue of Burke’s “partnership across generations,” because it isn’t something we privately own but rather a public good to steward for posterity. Conservation requires motivations other than self-interest – these motivations being love of beauty and love of home.
Love of beauty comes in the form of aesthetic judgement – something we all make day every day. Aesthetic judgement is a critical cultural dialogue because it communicates a vision of human life and its fulfillment. Scruton writes “solutions come when we allow our aesthetic sense to take over, aiming at what looks right, what feels right, and what we can vindicate to the eyes and hearts of our neighbors.” Essentially, beauty is a hill worth dying on. It matters if our environment is clean, safe, healthy, and lovely. By using the aesthetic sense publicly, man acts as a citizen and tries to convince the community that his taste will improve the settlement.
A major problem of the last decade is that the American zeitgeist has become one in which aesthetic judgements became dangerous. In a society that simultaneously coined the phrase “cancel culture” while refusing to admit any objective standards, voicing one’s tastes became a precarious risk. In short, if aesthetic judgement and dialogue are prohibited, it’s difficult to discuss ways of preserving the environment. Good faith arguments about culture and ecology were silenced by a crowd that sought absolute control over the conversation. Not only aesthetic judgement, but any judgement that differed from woke dogma could get one fired. Instead of dialogue, wokeism demanded monologue and those who attempted to converse upon these issues became anathema.
Despite endless lecturing from the elites, the majority of Americans answered by taking their families and votes to new places. The current exodus from blue states and landslide 2024 election results prove that woke bully tactics and gaslighting didn’t sit right with Americans — and not just to the Tea-Party or MAGA Republicans — but to a lot of centrists as well. Dark-web heroes such as Joe Rogan, Dave Ruben, and Bret Weinstein are examples of Democrats who felt the left had forsaken them. Instead of cowering to the mob, these men resolved to defend aesthetic judgement and common sense despite cancellation tactics.
Scruton also noted that he believed some leftists were coming to realize a major problem in their philosophy was, “no ordinary citizen has any motive to go along with it.” As the Democratic Party disintegrates in the wake of Trump 2.0, some of the remaining leaders are beginning to parrot Sir Roger’s point. Gavin Newsom and others are trying to distance themselves from radical leftism and become more relatable. Perhaps they’re starting to realize that people may have individual grievances such as income inequality, different perspectives on individual rights, and debate over what should be subsidized – but the large majority of Americans still feel it’s wrong to force transgender athletes into girls sports.
I use the term feel intentionally. Many of the left-brained types reel at such mushy subjectivity, but it’s precisely Scruton’s point. It’s aesthetic judgement, sense, feeling that is deciding these primal arguments. He and Burke are again in agreement as Burke claimed that at the core, man is politically driven by his passions.
During the first two decades of the 21st century, a case can be made that the Right was ignoring Burke’s conclusion. Under the George W. Bush Administration, defense, oil, and eventually bailouts ruled the headlines. Arguments were made over numbers and bills. Philosophic and moral claims were replaced with utility. Following Bush, the GOP seemed to think that a calm rationalism was the future and got consequently steamrolled by a campaign energized with idealism and identity politics. Suddenly, the Left began saying that gender is fluid and it melted the Right’s brain. The Left had somehow convinced the Right to pretend that metaphysics were out of the picture. Then in a nasty backhanded trick, they made a metaphysical case for an ideology that was clearly against democratic opinion. As the Right reeled, transgenderism swept into government and institutions like a tidal wave. But the Left overplayed their hand.
Solzhenitsyn famously said, “Beauty will save the world.” The elites scoffed openly and became too brazen. They reached beyond their grasp and mobilized multiple factions who did not consider themselves MAGA but would risk another Trump term rather than the woke vision of the future. That aesthetic sense, feeling, sentiment, the gut – it could be said beauty herself – rose against those who would abolish her and the tidal wave has begun to crash against the wall.
Along with the love of beauty, Scruton points out that a love of home should motivate conservation. Patriotism comes from the latin patria meaning “fatherland, country.” Becoming acquainted with the land itself and different peoples of the United States develops a natural love of country and one’s local community. Imagine if every highschooler traveled each year to a new part of the country. That would be a true education in diversity and allow them to experience America’s beautiful landscape. To love the land is another way of saying one cares for his environment. If your “environmentalism” consists of retweets and signing online petitions, something is seriously wrong. One must love this land, the actual dirt and rivers, trees and mountains. By spending time in his natural environment, man becomes bonded to his country and recognizes it as home. Chesterton hits on this exact point in the famous Orthodoxy: “Men did not love Rome because she was great. She was great because they had loved her.” Patriotism could bond an America that has become increasingly — and consciously — divided. Much has been written on polarization and the waning of a common American identity. Love of home can help us find it again.
As the political tide changes, aesthetic judgement and patriotism are being revitalized. Scruton laid the philosophical groundwork, but now it’s up to conservatives to do the conserving – through the love of beauty and love of home. It’s time for us to defend our land: America the beautiful.
