Irving Kristol, 1920-2009
I am very sad indeed to read of the death in Washington DC of Irving Kristol at the age of 89. Kristol was one of the intellectual titans of our age, and his influence on the course of American thinking, culture and politics was simply immense. As the godfather of neo-conservatism, the philosophy which has been so much misunderstood and grievously misrepresented as the ‘war-mongering’ doctrine behind the administration of George W Bush, Kristol – along with his wife, the scarcely less intellectually formidable Gertrude Himmelfarb -- was the first public intellectual to understand and articulate a defence of western civilisation against the onslaught mounted by the moral and cultural relativism of the nihilistic left.
It wasn’t conservatism; although it embodied certain recognisable conservative instincts, it was also classical liberal thinking in that it was not reactionary but progressive in its core aim of promoting moral, intellectual and social improvement. It was not a movement; Kristol himself described it as a ‘persuasion’. He spoke thus about the difficulty of classifying it:
The steady decline in our democratic culture, sinking to new levels of vulgarity, does unite neocons with traditional conservatives--though not with those libertarian conservatives who are conservative in economics but unmindful of the culture. The upshot is a quite unexpected alliance between neocons, who include a fair proportion of secular intellectuals, and religious traditionalists. They are united on issues concerning the quality of education, the relations of church and state, the regulation of pornography, and the like, all of which they regard as proper candidates for the government's attention. And since the Republican Party now has a substantial base among the religious, this gives neocons a certain influence and even power. Because religious conservatism is so feeble in Europe, the neoconservative potential there is correspondingly weak.
And then, of course, there is foreign policy, the area of American politics where neoconservatism has recently been the focus of media attention. This is surprising since there is no set of neoconservative beliefs concerning foreign policy, only a set of attitudes derived from historical experience. (The favorite neoconservative text on foreign affairs, thanks to professors Leo Strauss of Chicago and Donald Kagan of Yale, is Thucydides on the Peloponnesian War.) These attitudes can be summarized in the following ‘theses’ (as a Marxist would say): First, patriotism is a natural and healthy sentiment and should be encouraged by both private and public institutions. Precisely because we are a nation of immigrants, this is a powerful American sentiment. Second, world government is a terrible idea since it can lead to world tyranny. International institutions that point to an ultimate world government should be regarded with the deepest suspicion. Third, statesmen should, above all, have the ability to distinguish friends from enemies. This is not as easy as it sounds, as the history of the Cold War revealed. The number of intelligent men who could not count the Soviet Union as an enemy, even though this was its own self-definition, was absolutely astonishing.
Neoconservatism grew out of liberalism; Kristol famously defined a neoconservative as a ‘liberal who has been mugged by reality’. Above all, his thinking was a moral project. Galvanised by the perception that Lyndon Johnson’s ‘Great Society’ welfare programmes had not liberated the poor but enslaved them, he was outraged and appalled by the cultural relativism, the moral inversion and the nihilism that had destroyed the concepts of duty and personal accountability and was driving western civilisation into anarchy and barbarism. To this one-time Trotskyite, ideology was the enemy of reason and it had to be fought.
He developed this thinking into an alternative discourse to take on the hegemony of the west-bashing Left entrenched in the universities, not least by starting up the influential journal The Public Interest which became a must-read in political and intellectual circles. During the seventies and eighties he was the principal force behind the radical re-tuning of American political culture across the spectrum around the core idea that the enemies of liberty, morality and justice, both at home and abroad, had to be fought and defeated rather than accommodated and appeased. It was this thinking that lay behind Ronald Reagan’s stand against communism, as well as the welfare reforms that were eventually embraced by Bill Clinton.
The Washington Times described Irving Kristol’s influence thus:
Fighting communism was the cornerstone of Mr. Kristol's rightward shift. Nearly three decades before Mr. Reagan was elected president, Mr. Kristol wrote the highly controversial essay ‘Civil Liberties, 1952 -- A Study in Confusion’ in which he chastised Hollywood liberals for stonewalling security investigations -- including those by Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy -- into communist subversion in Tinseltown. The resulting furor was so intense that he reportedly sought solace for a time in Europe.
... His journey from Trotskyite to cheerleader for capitalism happened not because he wanted different ends, but because he believed the means employed by the welfare state actually harmed lower classes, instead of helping them. By framing welfare reform as beneficial to recipients, ending the ‘cycle of dependence,’ Republicans finally won the war on an issue that was once exclusively the domain of liberal Democrats.
I had the privilege of getting to know Irving Kristol a little in the last years of his life. His mind was still razor-sharp and his moral and intellectual analysis as unflinching as ever. ‘Explain about Britain’ he would say to me more than once. ‘Why hasn’t anyone done there what we did here, set up publications and think-tanks and talk radio to break the power of the Left in the universities? I just can’t understand why everyone is just sitting there and letting it happen! What’s wrong with them all?’
The answer is that only America could have produced and nurtured Irving Kristol and run with his ideas. Now that light has been extinguished – but the illumination that is his legacy will surely endure, even as the shadows lengthen.
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Melanie Phillips is a Daily Mail columnist. She also writes for the Jewish Chronicle and is a panellist on BBC Radio Four's Moral Maze. Her most recent book is 'The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth and Power', published by Encounter.
For a complete set of Melanie's articles click here
Melanie Phillips blog archive
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Suki
September 21st, 2009 11:15pmIt is a huge loss.
And how pertinent these lines
are: "World government is a terrible idea since it can lead to world tyranny."
Which is why under the smiling eye of George Soros & Co, Barack Obama is ending American exceptionalism to take us all there.
Still, at least it's not like there are any devious people trying to find a route for a global Caliphate, because then we really would be in trouble.
"Statesmen should, above all, have the ability to distinguish friends from enemies. This is not as easy as it sounds, as the history of the Cold War revealed. The number of intelligent men who could not count the Soviet Union as an enemy, even though this was its own self-definition, was absolutely astonishing."
There are Muslim apostates in the Middle East who write lines like this every day about the West's attitude to the military and political jihad. And do our masters listen? No. They just make us the "gateway" for sharia finance.
If the world does have one last great hope, only America's constitution and history will have made it possible.
All's lost here. Goodnight Europe.
Brian Moshe
September 21st, 2009 11:50pmMelanie,
I'm very sorry to learn from you here that the great Irving Kristol has died.
The pen is mightier than the sword and you are a mighty wielder of one, Melanie, so let us be thankful that the Western world had Irving Kristoll for so long and that you are still here to carry on the good fight.
journeyman
September 22nd, 2009 3:24am"ideology is the enemy of reason and has to be fought"
I was commenting over at "the enemies of reason"Leftist web-site "Liberal Conspiracy"a few days ago.A sort of Alice in Wonderland place,where people do things like discussing how to contort human nature into wearing shoes five sizes too small.
In one exchange with a fellow commentator on the extreme radical teaching of young Muslim girls in some Islamic schools ,I got this:
"Yes these are children being subjected to a form of indocrination,but surely,we indoctrinate children into the principle of liberalism and equality,whats the difference.?If we do not accept cultural difference,then we to become illiberal "end quote.
To be fair,apart from myself,it did provoke at least one of the "regulars" there to pull him up on it,which means my will to live has not (as yet) been irreparabley, fatally sapped.Is it possible that our universities are full of this type of Liberal Fascism "mind -set"? I'm not religious....but God help us!
yoyo
September 22nd, 2009 6:50amYou managed to totally ignore his over the top fear of teh gay. yes kristol was a war positive fool with little to none intellectual backing for his particular justifications but more than anything his mid to later writings were stained by his hatred of modern music and gay men
R. Green
September 22nd, 2009 7:13amThank you, Mellanie.
Yehi Zichro Baruch
dp damato
September 22nd, 2009 7:46amBrilliant man. He and a small group of 'liberals mugged by reality' starting in the 1950's changed the political culture of the US. His questions about why Britain has not adopted the neocon tactics are revealing. The preponderance of conservative talk radio in the US has been the game changer. It is by far the most effective political medium. Why British conservatives have not funded talk radio start ups is beyond perplexing. The Tories would be the most formidable political force in Britain if they had a network of talk radio backing them up. Talk radio frees conservative political groups because they would not have to accomodate the left. The left can simply be ignored.
The tories of course are forced to accomodate because the left so dominates the media and the culture (although the Daily Mail is a step in the right direction - possibly the beginning of the backlash.) The GOP was of the party of accomodation until transformed with the help of people like Kristol and social conservative leaders. In many respects today the GOP is seen as the natural governing party, and also the insurgent party. W. did great damage to the brand but I sense that it will not be permanent damage. A tory party that was transformed into an insurgent party, proudly politically incorrect, and supported by talk radio, would be a force to be reckoned with. One can only hope as G. Britain is too important to become just another N. European socialist utopia. That is what the liberal elite want, certainly not what the cantankerous, individualistic, outspoken British people want.
Tim
September 22nd, 2009 7:56amRegarding the readiness of some people not a million miles from here to go from "left" to "right":
"If you want to get on in politics start at the Left and go to the Right. And always be ready to kick off the ladder all those who helped you get up there in the first place"
Basil Zaharoff, the original 'Merchant of Death' to the young Robert Boothby, in the 1920s.
"In politics, there's no morality, only expediency" J Goebbels.
Marcus
September 22nd, 2009 10:04am'Goodnight Europe' is a ritual doomy talisman here. Suki, what exactly do you mean by it, and could you possibly provide some evidence?
patricia
September 22nd, 2009 12:19pmSo he was a fervent Zionist.
Thanks Mel for explaining it clearly.
E.R.
September 22nd, 2009 3:20pmA well-deserved tribute to Irving Kristol. May I use this space to send condolences to William Kristol, his son, who is keeping up the good work and to the rest of the Kristol family.
As for Patricia's snide comment....it is unbecoming and reflects very badly on her.
Augustus
September 22nd, 2009 3:54pm"Large nations...inevitably have ideological interests in addition to more material concerns...that is why we feel it necessary to defend Israel today, when its survival is threatened. No complicated geopolitical calculations of national interest are necessary."
Just one of the many wise and evergreen contributions to American social and political thought by this classical thinker.
Suki
September 22nd, 2009 4:02pmEvidence, Marcus?
You clearly didn't read my line about sharia finance. This is a form of finance that has been demonstrably shown to lead to money going to Islamic terrorists yet Gordon Brown says Britain should be the “gateway“ for this sort of finance.
The zakat creamed off has been demonstrably shown to have been handed out to Islamic 'charities' as chosen by imams and, hey presto, to fund Islamic terrorism.
The activities of Bank Al-Taqwa and Akida Bank are well documented. Those are just two of the ones proven to have funded Islamic terror via sharia finance to the tune of millions of dollars.
Perhaps you did read my line about sharia finance and just decided to ignore it.
My assertion about “Goodnight Europe”, then, Marcus, is made because I see people like you who are either ignorant or disingenuous about how sharia finance is used to fund Islamic terror and don’t seem to care about its growth.
Suki
September 22nd, 2009 4:40pmCome on, Tim, the person you refer to as ‘not a million miles from here’ has never endorsed or practiced the politics of Goebbels.
As with Mr Kristol, and, if I may say so, Peter Hitchens (ultra far Left) and Richard Littlejohn (very mild flirtation with the Left), the reason why the person to whom you refer gets up the nose of the Left is because she - like them - knows the Left from the inside out and that‘s how she catches them.
The reason why her former employer Peter Preston seems to be apoplectic when he has to speak about her is that she knows where the Left's bodies are buried - literally.
Last century the British Left were happy to watch people slaughtered in Russia for the sanctimony of their ideas and now want everyone to forget about their endorsement of that.
And this century, the buggers are brazenly at it again apologising for the jihad. Israel can go as far as they’re concerned, we can go on the tube and so on and so on. Just blame it all on George Bush and Zionism.
“Make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites and deal rigorously with them. Hell shall be their home: an evil fate.” All George Bush’s fault. If you get blown up on the tube with some bugger screaming that in your dying face, don't forget, ignore all that and "Allahua Akbar!", it's all George Bush's fault. If you're in real luck, you'll die, your killer will live to become a terror suspect and Shami Chakrabarti, Clive Stafford Smith & Co can have a field day turning their rights into a cause celebre while you rot in your grave.
Do you know, Peter Preston & Co probably even think Alan Rusbridger’s dreadful piano playing is down to George Bush when he inflicts it on them.
They say if you want to catch a thief, speak to a burglar. People like P Hitchens et al know what’s been going on.
Just when people like Peter Preston think they’ve got the Left’s skeletons locked safely away in the cupboard, in will pop Auntie Mel with her polemical bolt cutters and Uncle Rich with his dynamite satire.
Au fait as they are with the modus operandi, the doors are blown off and we can all see what Pete and friends have been hiding this time.
Marcus
September 22nd, 2009 5:47pmWow! Impressive purple prose there Suki
James Murphy
September 22nd, 2009 6:47pmVerity is dead - long live Suki! Or to put it in less libellous terms: I declare Suki the new Verity (by which I mean to praise both rather than disparage either)! That is of course, if Suki is not actually a nom de plume of Verity for use on this blog. since I see the vaunted queen of verbal acid is still at work on the coffee-house wall! May her tribe increase!
sumner
September 22nd, 2009 9:40pmIn 1973 Kristol wrote in the Congress Bi-weekly, a publication of the American Jewish Congress:
"Senator McGovern is very sincere when he says that he will try to cut the military budget by 30%. And this is to drive a knife in the heart of Israel… Jews don’t like big military budgets. But it is now an interest of the Jews to have a large and powerful military establishment in the United States… American Jews who care about the survival of the state of Israel have to say, no, we don’t want to cut the military budget, it is important to keep that military budget big, so that we can defend Israel."
This was a sincere expression of Kristol’s Israel-firstism, that his brother-in-law Milton Himmelfarb and his son Bill Kristol also have espoused, a core of neocon ideology that would play a large part in events that followed, and that have helped to bring our ship on to the rocks in the last few years.
Tim
September 22nd, 2009 11:19pmThe comment by Goebbels was inserted into the mouth of Lenin, in a pamphlet issued by the German Embassy in the summer of 1941,with an unholy mixture of real and made up quotes from Lenin and the other Soviet monsters,intended to deter any sympathy for the Russians and others being killed in the course of 'Operation Barbarossa'. The same pamphlet was much quoted by Reagan in early 1981, as proof of how evil the Soviets were, until someone pointed out the origin of these quotes! The late Alastair Cooke, in his 'Letter from America' made darling Ronnie's blooper known outwith the US.
The saying that a neocon was 'a liberal who has been mugged by reality' was originally coined by IWW members to describe a communist, in the 1920s! I think you'll find it quoted in the film 'Matewan'.
I hope you're not going to resurrect the long-discredited canard that pornography was a Communist plot! I mean, Larry Flint and the Porn magnates of California are such Reds!
I respect Melanie Phillips for her facts and her integrity, I just dislike her tendency to be outright Manichean in her equation:
ALL LEFTIES/LIBERALS=EVIL AND ANTISEMITIC.
And Richard Littlejohn, 'dynamite satire'! The most unfunny, tedious, gloomy and stupid columnist out! He makes Mark Steyn seem bright and insightful! I mean, living in the US gives you such an insight into Britain!
If you want to depict all Muslims as incredibly evil and Islamists to a man or woman and Europe as facing a Muslim takeover, you're welcome to your delusions. I fail to see how this is happening as Muslims are a diminutive minority and European Muslims are not of one single ethnic group but many.
Edward Beaman
September 23rd, 2009 12:50amI too was sad to hear of his passing. His political philosophy and writings helped shape my own political beliefs and for that I will be forever grateful.
I think Britain has a sharp mind and guiding light similar to that of Kristol, in Douglas Murray, for whom I have the utmost respect.
AF Austin, Texas
September 23rd, 2009 1:53amThank you, great thoughts. However, I have hope for England. It's produced some great writers and thinkers.
Ronnie
September 23rd, 2009 10:20amI'm happy to note, however belatedly, that Mel allows us to have a few intellectuals.
Lisa
September 23rd, 2009 1:40pmSorry, Tim, who said "all Muslims" are "incredibly evil"?
Oh, no one. You just decided to make things up that have not been said at all.
Back to The Guardian news room for you.
Tim
September 24th, 2009 7:57amDear Linda
I could single out 'Suki's tirade further up the comments column, for a start. Since I discovered this blog, nearly all comments regarding Muslims or Islam in general have been generally negative or totally hostile. Any supportive comments tend to be bludgeoned over the head with the likes of Hamas' infamous antisemitic comments in its Manifesto. I hope this is more down to bad temper and ego than plain anti-Muslim Manichaenism.
Most British Muslims I meet are as alarmed with the Islamist Jihadis as most of the contributors here. The car-bombs and killings carried out with depressing regularity in Baghdad and Afghanistan or Pakistan tend to hit other Muslims rather than 'khaffirs' or 'Crusaders'.
Just like in Northern Ireland in the past. One of the reasons why I severed connections with the Guardian long ago-their playpen affection for Sinn Fein. 'The Scotsman' and 'The Economist' are my windows on the world now.
Still, 'Respect' has disintegrated long ago and egotistical drips like George Galloway seem to be the exception to the rule.
You could say the neocon motto could be 'Bless what thou did curse and curse what thou did bless'-the admonishment given to Clovis the Frank at his baptism. While some would like to see neoconservatism as youthful idealism married to mature sense, there is more than a little of the convert's hostility to what his or her earlier creed. And, there is a tendency to carry over some of the quasi-Marxist hostility or intolerance of dissenters. Like Dershowitz's bizzarre claim that all 'left-wingers' acknowledge the crimes committed by those on the left, as if milk-and-water liberals or pink leftists are of the same strain as Stalin!
Broadening of the mind or hardening of the arteries?
Christopher Chantrill
September 24th, 2009 6:19pmYes, why isn't there a conservative "movement" in Britain? In the US we have Free Enterprise Nation, Smart Girls Nation, Tea Parties, Town Halls, and the 9/12 rally. All grass roots, all within a year of Obama's election.
Sergey
September 24th, 2009 7:24pm"He makes Mark Steyn seem bright and insightful!"
Never thought Mark Steyn needs anybody to make him seem bright and insightful - he just IS bright and insightful.
Sergey
September 24th, 2009 7:28pmTim, REAL quotes from Lenin show him no less cynical and amoral than Goebbels. In general, when two totalitarian regimes began to expose atrocites of each other, you can safely trust both.
ISAAC
September 24th, 2009 8:43pmThis man was a God.
Michael Wiener, American English Professor Retired
September 30th, 2009 5:30amNonetheless, there are many American conservatives who are fed up with the ex-Trotskyites and their "continental" formalization of everything, in particular their "ideological capitalism." We should instead seek to return to a more American model. That is, Capitalism isn't an "ism", but rather simply an activity.
From where comes this desire for formalization, for theorized "system", for triumphant and monumental Weise des Sehens und des Verfahrens, tra la? Suffice it to say you can take the refugee intellectual out of Germany, but can you take Germany out of the refugee intellectual?
Descending upon America with their funny accents and faux supercilious attitudes, the refugees pulled the wool over the eyes of the American rubes. And deploying their clockwork German and Russian methodologies the neo-cons didn't do their adopted country any favors.
Nabokov saw they were a bunch of "Humbert Humberts" taking advantage of a situation, and he drove that point home forcibly in vivid and memorable terms.
I'm quite satisfied with my Locke and Jefferson, thank you very much.
Ahem.