Blame the Libertarians!
[NRO Staff  02/23 07:15 AM]

An e-mail:

Since reading the original discussions on the Crunchy Cons on NRO I've considered myself to be among this group. Yesterday I ordered the book and I eagerly await reading it. Here at Patrick Henry College we are forming a discussion group to go through your book led by one of our faculty, Dr.
Mark Mitchell who also considers himself a crunchy con. As you might know Patrick Henry College was founded by Mike Farris who is a leader in the home school world and close to 80% of our student body was home schooled.
So PHC may have the largest concentration by percentage of Crunchy Cons (whether they know it or not) of any college in the US. :) If you are ever in the area (Purcellville, VA) we'd love to have you speak on campus.

Anyway, I wanted to throw in some basic thoughts on crunchy conservatism in relation to libertarianism and get the feedback from the panel. I'm not totally certain but I think that the explosive growth of libertarianism in our society has contributed to the counter-cultural bent of crunchy cons.
Crunchy cons generally consider themselves to be the true conservatives while it is the mainstream conservatives who have left the philosophical fold. I wonder if it has been the societal creep of libertarianism that has caused this philosophical slippage among conservatives. Libertarians have successfully stolen words that had truly conservative meanings and have redefined them along libertarian lines. For example, "Liberty" was a word used at our nations founding which today has a very different meaning. Today liberty has virtually no limits and it implies no responsibility while it used to have implied responsibilities of self-government and restraint.

Today, our society uses words like liberty and freedom just to talk about selfish rights with no regard for community or others. The libertarian fears not only government telling him what to do but also all other institutions like family, church, community standards, neighbors, role models, etc. Out of libertarianism flows extreme individualistic selfishness. Out of that individualism flows, in my mind, most of the things that crunchy cons revolt against. Our society demands goods and services that serve the instant gratification of the individualist. A crunchy con (or true conservative) thinks first of others and his duty, not rights, in regards to others. Others for the crunchy con would be family, church, and community.

Thanks,
Rich Shipe
Director of Distance Learning
Patrick Henry College