Why we should hate Roger Scruton...
"Scruton's Burkean political views, expounded in the conservative quarterly Salisbury Review and elsewhere, made him a hated figure amongst many on the Left. The Meaning of Conservatism was, to some extent, a response to the growth of liberalism in the Conservative Party. The book seeks to shift the emphasis of the right away from economics towards moral issues such as sex education and censorship laws. He has attracted criticism because of his support for fox hunting with hounds in his book Animal Rights and Wrongs. He is generally regarded as the most important living British conservative philosopher."
Wikipedia
communalism
Advocacy of communes.
There is a positive value in individuals cooperating with each other in small groups, rather than relying on individual effort.
Communalism differs from collectivism in that it values groups small enough for all members to be familiar with one another; and in seeing the benefits of co-operation as consisting as much in social and cultural satisfaction as in material efficiency.
Communalism provides the ethical aspiration of which communism was, in its 19th century version, the strategic or political application.
Source:
Roger Scruton, A Dictionary of Political Thought (London, 1982)
In Dutch :
communalisme
Het verdedigen en promoten van communes.
Er is een positieve waardering van de onderlinge samenwerking van individuen in kleine groepen, eerder dan te vertrouwen op individuele inspanning.
Communalisme verschilt van collectivisme in die zin dat het groepen waardeert die klein genoeg zijn opdat alle leden elkaar in ruime mate kennen; en in het zien van evenveel voordelen in de samen-werking bij sociale en culturele bevrediging als bij materiële efficiëntie. Communalisme levert de ethische aspiraties van dat waarvoor, in zijn 19de eeuwse versie, communisme de strategische of politieke toepassing was.
Bron :
Roger Scruton, A Dictionary of Political Thought (London, 1982)
Murray Bookchin in The Communalist Project :
Its most important goal is clearly spelled out in a conventional dictionary definition: Communalism, according to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, is ”a theory or system of government in which virtually autonomous local communities are loosely bound in a federation.”
And then he added in a note :
What is so surprising about this minimalist dictionary definition is its overall accuracy: I would take issue only with its formulations “virtually autonomous” and “loosely bound,” which suggest a parochial and particularistic, even irresponsible relationship of the components of a confederation to the whole.
(Edited post at the 1st of august 2007)
