My Introduction

My mother gave me a book for my recent birthday. Crunchy Cons, by Rod Dreher details “How Birkenstocked Burkeans, gun-loving organic gardeners, evangelical free-range farmers, hip homeschooling mamas, right-wing nature lovers, and their diverse tribe of countercultural conservatives plan to save America (or at least the Republican Party).”

In essence, Crunchy is used as a synonym for that which favors culture, sustainability, and the environment, over politics, efficiency, and progress. The classic GOP apologist tends to be subservient to the free market god, culture be damned. While I gladly buy that capitalism is the way to go on the question of economic organization, capitalism isn’t the cure for our social ills. The cure for what ails us as a species will have a cultural root, not an economic or political one. Herein lies the basis for Dreher’s book.

(I’d recommend anyone with a sociopolitical pulse to read the book. Only the most closed-minded of conservative or materialist of liberal will openly object to the tenets of crunchy conservatism. That’s ok by me, those are the two ugliest sectors of either school of thought).

(By the way, I am a fan of libertarian philosophy, and now I'm a sociopolitical crunchy conservative. It's true I tend to vote with the GOP, but to call me a Republican would be unfair. To call be a Republican apologist would be outright incorrect.)

A “culture of life” is often confused with a society in which Roe V Wade has been overturned. That's a gross oversimplification. While I feel that abortion is morally wrong, the end in mind for the pro-life camp shouldn’t be solely the banning of abortion, but rather a society where abortion is universally unnecessary. (Yes, I’m referencing Bill Clinton). That is the true meaning of a 'culture of life'; only the most evil sector of the pro-choice camp is going to disagree with me on this one. Again, the solution to what ails us is cultural, not political or economic.

If the importance of something called “collective virtue” is foreign to you, perhaps you missed that whole ‘having a conscience' thing. What we as a nation often don’t realize, though, are the small subtle ways in which we ignore love of neighbor in our daily lives. I’m no exception, but a little bit of introspection from us all may go far to give us a heightened culture of collective virtue. To quote Saint Thomas More, “[in the end] it isn’t a matter of reason…it’s a matter of love.”