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Confessions of a Heretic
A collection of provocative essays by the influential social commentator, Roger Scruton. Scruton explores the conflict between the Christian-inspired Enlightenment and Islam, and attempts to find a remedy for the void at the heart of our civilisation. Why do we capitulate before everyone more ignorant than ourselves? Why do we turn immediately on all those who wish to defend our rooted values against whatever invading force has appeared over the horizon? These hard-hitting essays from a profound intellect threaten the bedrock of conventional opinion.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2016
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655 people want to read
About the author
Roger Scruton
138 books1,364 followersSir Roger Scruton was a writer and philosopher who has published more than forty books in philosophy, aesthetics and politics. He was a fellow of the British Academy and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He taught in both England and America and was a Visiting Professor at Department of Philosophy and Fellow of Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, he was also a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington D.C.
In 2015 he published two books, The Disappeared and later in the autumn, Fools Frauds and Firebrands. Fools Frauds and Firebrands is an update of Thinkers of the New Left published, to widespread outrage, in 1986. It includes new chapters covering Lacan, Deleuze and Badiou and some timely thoughts about the historians and social thinkers who led British intellectuals up the garden path during the last decades, including Eric Hobsbawm and Ralph Miliband.
In 2016 he again published two books, Confessions of A Heretic (a collection of essays) and The Ring of Truth, about Wagner’s Ring cycle, which was widely and favourably reviewed. In 2017 he published On Human Nature (Princeton University Press), which was again widely reviewed, and contains a distillation of his philosophy. He also published a response to Brexit, Where We Are (Bloomsbury).
In 2015 he published two books, The Disappeared and later in the autumn, Fools Frauds and Firebrands. Fools Frauds and Firebrands is an update of Thinkers of the New Left published, to widespread outrage, in 1986. It includes new chapters covering Lacan, Deleuze and Badiou and some timely thoughts about the historians and social thinkers who led British intellectuals up the garden path during the last decades, including Eric Hobsbawm and Ralph Miliband.
In 2016 he again published two books, Confessions of A Heretic (a collection of essays) and The Ring of Truth, about Wagner’s Ring cycle, which was widely and favourably reviewed. In 2017 he published On Human Nature (Princeton University Press), which was again widely reviewed, and contains a distillation of his philosophy. He also published a response to Brexit, Where We Are (Bloomsbury).
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December 21, 2017
Surpassing the genre
I expected this book to be good but not great, something like Wendel Berry, Roger Shattuck or Richard Weaver. All essays with glimmers of brilliance but lacking the depth of longer format writings. However, Roger Scruton's writing is very much like Chesterton's in that they both start from what seems a counter-intuitive premise and advance in their argument to the point where the audience begins to see the world in a new light but a rather old way. It is like seeing something for the first time that you have seen every day but never noticed. A true defense of common sense, which is rare in philosophy and even rarer in the West these days.
As for the style of Scruton, I don't think it is either too much of an insult or too much a compliment to compare him to Chesterton. Both Chesterton and Scruton have found their voice and use it effectively. Chesterton's writings read as if you are hearing him on a soap-box in Hyde Park and Scruton reads like you are sitting with him by a fire with a glass of whiskey (or Port) in hand. Both are essentially witty but the humour is used to advance the argument and keep the audience entertained rather than replace the argument, which is the problem with many rhetoricians.
Each individual essay touches on a contemporary topic that is of permanent interest and importance. Even chapters which are far from my normal interests managed to resonate and because the chapter/essays stay at or under 20 pages, the theme never gets too drawn out.
The essays are:
1) Faking it (on modern art in society)
"Artists and critics get together to take themselves in, the artists posing as the originators of astonishing breakthroughs, the critics posing as the penetrating judges of the true avant-garde." (p. 3)
"anything is art because nothing is" (p. 4)
"Paintings and sculptures can be owned, bought and sold. Hence there is a vast market in them, and whether or not they have a value, they certainly have a price." (p. 12...and yes, he credits Oscar Wilde for the insight)
"In art beauty has to be won...Real art is a work of love, fake art is a work of deception." (p. 16-17)
2) Loving Animals (on returning to balance in relationships)
"Now it seems to me that the right way to love a dog is to love him not as a person, but as a creature..." (p. 28)
"From a dog, therefore, we can enjoy the kind of endorsement that requires no moral labour to earn it. And this is what we see all around us, the dwindling of human affection." (p. 29)
"Devoted animals provide an escape route from human affection, and so make that affection superfluous." (p. 31)
3) Governing Rightly (on the conservative need for proper government)
"A kind of hysteria of repudiation rages in European opinion-forming circles, picking one by one on the old and settled customs of a two-thousand-year-old civilisation, and forbidding them or distorting them into some barely-recognisable caricature." (p. 35)
"Conservativism should be a defence of government, against its abuse by liberals." (p. 44)
"welfare policies may lead to the creation of a socially dysfunctional underclass." (p. 45)
4) Dancing Properly (on how music and dance have abandoned form)
"Their fear of conversation, lack of small talk, and general clumsiness, are the natural result of the education to which they have been exposed, which is directed to removing all ideas of elegance, distinction or grace from their behaviour." (p. 53)
"[regarding true music] There is no violent drumming, no amplified bass, none of the devices which- I am tempted to say- substitute for rhythm in so much contemporary pop." (p. 61)
"a grotesque caricature of music in which rhythm is mere beat and melody mere repetition." (p. 61)
5) Building to Last (modern architecture and a need to return to organic living)
"the miracle of a town like Paris is to be explained only by the fact that few modern architects have been allowed to get their hands on it." (p. 65-66)
"the work of the Luffwaffe had in many cities been brought near to completion by the post-war planners." (p. 68)
"Modernist vandals like Richard Rogers and Norman Foster...live in elegant old houses in charming locations" (p. 71)
"the exceptional building is designed... to stand out rather than blend in." (p. 76)
"the real meaning of the modernist forms is that there is no God, that meaning has fled from the world, and that Big Brother is now in charge." (p. 79)
"Exile is what the collectivist utopias promissed, home lies in the opposite direction." (p. 82)
"Most of these starchitects...have equipped themselves with a store of pretentious gobbledegook, with which to explain their genius to those who are otherwise unable to perceive it." (p. 82)
"they authorize what would otherwise look like vandalism on a massive scale" (p. 84)
6) Effing the Ineffable (philosophers knowing when to shut up...a gracefully and eloquently short 4 pages)
"The history of philosophy abounds in thinkers who, having concluded that the truth is ineffable, have gone on to write pages upon pages about it." (p. 86)
7) Hiding Behind the Screen (much like the animal chapter, about how technology is damaging inter-personal relationships and thus full human development)
"Everything that appears on the screen appears in competition...He is one of the many products on display" (p. 95)
"I was taught that shyness is not a virtue but a defect, and it comes from placing too high a value on yourself" (p. 96)
"Freedom involves an active engagement in the world, in which opposition is encountered and overcome, risks are taken and satisfactions weighed: it is, in short, an exercise in practical reason" (p. 100)
8) Mourning our losses: Reflections on Strauss's Metamorphosen (German's destructive war-guilt)
9) Branding the Bottle (Icons and Idols in the modern world)
"Only what is consecrated can be desecrated" (p. 123)
"The decline of religion has deprived us of sacred things. But it has not deprived us of the need for them." (p. 131)
"The American flag has retained its aura...That is why people are always burning it." (p. 131)
10) Dying In Time (about euthanasia but approached from the virtues rather than a utilitarian or deontological perspective...this might be the one place where Scruton's distinction between person and human being causes a serious moral problem for me, see p. 145)
"Greek sages told us to judge no man happy until he is dead." (p. 136)
"death is not the worst thing that can happen to us." (p. 138)
"This use of precious resources and precious human capital is hard to justify in utilitarian terms- which I take to be a criticism of utilitarianism, rather than a criticism of institutional care" (p. 143)
"With courage a person can go about living in another way- a way that will give maximum chance of dying with his faculties intact. This other way is not the way of the welfare culture...Of course you should drink, smoke, eat fatty foods, but not to the point of gluttony. The point is to weaken the body while strengthening the mind." (p. 149)
"The main point, it seems to me, is to maintain a life of active risk and affection, while helping the body along the path of decay, remembering always that the value of life does not consist in its length but its depth." (p. 150)
11) Conserving Nature (on the environment, particularly urban sprawl and the proper conservative contribution to a solution)
"Environmentalism has all the hallmarks of a left-wing cause: a class of victims,...an enlightened vanguard who fights for them,... powerful philistines who exploit them,... and endless opportunities to express resentment against the successful, the wealthy and the West." (p. 151)
"environmentalism is the quintessential conservative cause...that partnership between the dead, the living and the unborn" (p. 152)
"the mistaken view that the market, not the state, that has created the problem" (p. 156)
"look at the solutions that leftists, over the years, have admired, and you will surely learn to distrust their judgement" (p. 158-9)
"The reason why the environmental movement has been captured by the left is that it lends itself to this ambition. It provides terrifying scenarious which seem to justify the total overthrow of existing orders, while encouraging the kind of control from the top that would put enlightened leftists at last in charge of the endarkened middle class." (p. 165)
12) Defending the West (What makes the West and Islam incompatible or at least difficult to reconcile)
Here Scruton has 7 features of the West which are absent or even antagonistic to Islam and he summarizes them on the last page:
"make no concessions to those who wish us to exchange citizenship for subjecthood, nationality for religious conformity, secular law for Shari'ah, the Judeo-Christian inheritance for Islam, irony for solemnity, self-criticism for dogmatism, representation for submission, and cheerful drinking for censorious abstinence." (p. 193-194)
I expected this book to be good but not great, something like Wendel Berry, Roger Shattuck or Richard Weaver. All essays with glimmers of brilliance but lacking the depth of longer format writings. However, Roger Scruton's writing is very much like Chesterton's in that they both start from what seems a counter-intuitive premise and advance in their argument to the point where the audience begins to see the world in a new light but a rather old way. It is like seeing something for the first time that you have seen every day but never noticed. A true defense of common sense, which is rare in philosophy and even rarer in the West these days.
As for the style of Scruton, I don't think it is either too much of an insult or too much a compliment to compare him to Chesterton. Both Chesterton and Scruton have found their voice and use it effectively. Chesterton's writings read as if you are hearing him on a soap-box in Hyde Park and Scruton reads like you are sitting with him by a fire with a glass of whiskey (or Port) in hand. Both are essentially witty but the humour is used to advance the argument and keep the audience entertained rather than replace the argument, which is the problem with many rhetoricians.
Each individual essay touches on a contemporary topic that is of permanent interest and importance. Even chapters which are far from my normal interests managed to resonate and because the chapter/essays stay at or under 20 pages, the theme never gets too drawn out.
The essays are:
1) Faking it (on modern art in society)
"Artists and critics get together to take themselves in, the artists posing as the originators of astonishing breakthroughs, the critics posing as the penetrating judges of the true avant-garde." (p. 3)
"anything is art because nothing is" (p. 4)
"Paintings and sculptures can be owned, bought and sold. Hence there is a vast market in them, and whether or not they have a value, they certainly have a price." (p. 12...and yes, he credits Oscar Wilde for the insight)
"In art beauty has to be won...Real art is a work of love, fake art is a work of deception." (p. 16-17)
2) Loving Animals (on returning to balance in relationships)
"Now it seems to me that the right way to love a dog is to love him not as a person, but as a creature..." (p. 28)
"From a dog, therefore, we can enjoy the kind of endorsement that requires no moral labour to earn it. And this is what we see all around us, the dwindling of human affection." (p. 29)
"Devoted animals provide an escape route from human affection, and so make that affection superfluous." (p. 31)
3) Governing Rightly (on the conservative need for proper government)
"A kind of hysteria of repudiation rages in European opinion-forming circles, picking one by one on the old and settled customs of a two-thousand-year-old civilisation, and forbidding them or distorting them into some barely-recognisable caricature." (p. 35)
"Conservativism should be a defence of government, against its abuse by liberals." (p. 44)
"welfare policies may lead to the creation of a socially dysfunctional underclass." (p. 45)
4) Dancing Properly (on how music and dance have abandoned form)
"Their fear of conversation, lack of small talk, and general clumsiness, are the natural result of the education to which they have been exposed, which is directed to removing all ideas of elegance, distinction or grace from their behaviour." (p. 53)
"[regarding true music] There is no violent drumming, no amplified bass, none of the devices which- I am tempted to say- substitute for rhythm in so much contemporary pop." (p. 61)
"a grotesque caricature of music in which rhythm is mere beat and melody mere repetition." (p. 61)
5) Building to Last (modern architecture and a need to return to organic living)
"the miracle of a town like Paris is to be explained only by the fact that few modern architects have been allowed to get their hands on it." (p. 65-66)
"the work of the Luffwaffe had in many cities been brought near to completion by the post-war planners." (p. 68)
"Modernist vandals like Richard Rogers and Norman Foster...live in elegant old houses in charming locations" (p. 71)
"the exceptional building is designed... to stand out rather than blend in." (p. 76)
"the real meaning of the modernist forms is that there is no God, that meaning has fled from the world, and that Big Brother is now in charge." (p. 79)
"Exile is what the collectivist utopias promissed, home lies in the opposite direction." (p. 82)
"Most of these starchitects...have equipped themselves with a store of pretentious gobbledegook, with which to explain their genius to those who are otherwise unable to perceive it." (p. 82)
"they authorize what would otherwise look like vandalism on a massive scale" (p. 84)
6) Effing the Ineffable (philosophers knowing when to shut up...a gracefully and eloquently short 4 pages)
"The history of philosophy abounds in thinkers who, having concluded that the truth is ineffable, have gone on to write pages upon pages about it." (p. 86)
7) Hiding Behind the Screen (much like the animal chapter, about how technology is damaging inter-personal relationships and thus full human development)
"Everything that appears on the screen appears in competition...He is one of the many products on display" (p. 95)
"I was taught that shyness is not a virtue but a defect, and it comes from placing too high a value on yourself" (p. 96)
"Freedom involves an active engagement in the world, in which opposition is encountered and overcome, risks are taken and satisfactions weighed: it is, in short, an exercise in practical reason" (p. 100)
8) Mourning our losses: Reflections on Strauss's Metamorphosen (German's destructive war-guilt)
9) Branding the Bottle (Icons and Idols in the modern world)
"Only what is consecrated can be desecrated" (p. 123)
"The decline of religion has deprived us of sacred things. But it has not deprived us of the need for them." (p. 131)
"The American flag has retained its aura...That is why people are always burning it." (p. 131)
10) Dying In Time (about euthanasia but approached from the virtues rather than a utilitarian or deontological perspective...this might be the one place where Scruton's distinction between person and human being causes a serious moral problem for me, see p. 145)
"Greek sages told us to judge no man happy until he is dead." (p. 136)
"death is not the worst thing that can happen to us." (p. 138)
"This use of precious resources and precious human capital is hard to justify in utilitarian terms- which I take to be a criticism of utilitarianism, rather than a criticism of institutional care" (p. 143)
"With courage a person can go about living in another way- a way that will give maximum chance of dying with his faculties intact. This other way is not the way of the welfare culture...Of course you should drink, smoke, eat fatty foods, but not to the point of gluttony. The point is to weaken the body while strengthening the mind." (p. 149)
"The main point, it seems to me, is to maintain a life of active risk and affection, while helping the body along the path of decay, remembering always that the value of life does not consist in its length but its depth." (p. 150)
11) Conserving Nature (on the environment, particularly urban sprawl and the proper conservative contribution to a solution)
"Environmentalism has all the hallmarks of a left-wing cause: a class of victims,...an enlightened vanguard who fights for them,... powerful philistines who exploit them,... and endless opportunities to express resentment against the successful, the wealthy and the West." (p. 151)
"environmentalism is the quintessential conservative cause...that partnership between the dead, the living and the unborn" (p. 152)
"the mistaken view that the market, not the state, that has created the problem" (p. 156)
"look at the solutions that leftists, over the years, have admired, and you will surely learn to distrust their judgement" (p. 158-9)
"The reason why the environmental movement has been captured by the left is that it lends itself to this ambition. It provides terrifying scenarious which seem to justify the total overthrow of existing orders, while encouraging the kind of control from the top that would put enlightened leftists at last in charge of the endarkened middle class." (p. 165)
12) Defending the West (What makes the West and Islam incompatible or at least difficult to reconcile)
Here Scruton has 7 features of the West which are absent or even antagonistic to Islam and he summarizes them on the last page:
"make no concessions to those who wish us to exchange citizenship for subjecthood, nationality for religious conformity, secular law for Shari'ah, the Judeo-Christian inheritance for Islam, irony for solemnity, self-criticism for dogmatism, representation for submission, and cheerful drinking for censorious abstinence." (p. 193-194)
July 17, 2016
A lovely collection of essays about a wide range of topics, including government, the environment, animals, architecture, art, and how we die. This is the third book by Scruton that I've read; I've also read several uncollected essays, seen/listened to some interviews, lectures, etc. While his Intelligent Person's Guide to Philosophy perhaps gives the more nuanced overview of his thought, this collection, in being less abstract and permitting his wit, charm, and sometimes-acid critiques to shine through, reveals the essential touchstones and first principles of his thought clearly, cogently, and entertainingly.
Essentially, what we see in different ways and to different extents in every essay is an exploration of the relationship between an "I" and another "I." In Scruton's thought, subjecthood is contingent upon the recognition of the subjecthood of others, and expected reciprocation of that recognition by others unto us. From this "I" & "I" flows a concept of mutual obligation and duty, and a sense that statist, technocratic diktat and fiat destroys this "I" & "I" relationship, and thus undermines our status as thinking subjects--and ultimately our humanity. All of Scruton's thinking in these essays seems to be based in some articulation of the relationship of a subject to other subjects, governed by mutual obligation and duty, and the way these first principles play out in considerations of art, environment, government, and the many more subjects he considers here are fascinating, challenging, and illuminating.
Essentially, what we see in different ways and to different extents in every essay is an exploration of the relationship between an "I" and another "I." In Scruton's thought, subjecthood is contingent upon the recognition of the subjecthood of others, and expected reciprocation of that recognition by others unto us. From this "I" & "I" flows a concept of mutual obligation and duty, and a sense that statist, technocratic diktat and fiat destroys this "I" & "I" relationship, and thus undermines our status as thinking subjects--and ultimately our humanity. All of Scruton's thinking in these essays seems to be based in some articulation of the relationship of a subject to other subjects, governed by mutual obligation and duty, and the way these first principles play out in considerations of art, environment, government, and the many more subjects he considers here are fascinating, challenging, and illuminating.
January 1, 2017
An excellent collection of essays, where Scruton quite expertly and swiftly exposes the shortcomings of the Left as well as espousing unpopular opinions. I don't agree with him on everything said in the collection - naturally so, given it is supposed to be the beliefs he was warned not to admit to - but it is still great reading and a challenge to my views. Worth it.
August 6, 2023
"The main point, it seems to me, is to maintain a life of active risk and affection, remembering always that the value of life does not consist in its length but in its depth"
January 3, 2026
يرى العديد من المراقبين أن مواقع التواصل الاجتماعي، مثل فيسبوك، تُقدم فائدة نفسية، إذ تُساعد من يخجلون من الظهور أمام العالم مباشرةً، على إيجاد مكانة وهوية عامة لهم. كما تُتيح هذه المواقع للأفراد التواصل مع دائرة واسعة من الأصدقاء والزملاء، مما يُوسع نطاق علاقاتهم العاطفية، وينشر الإيجابية في العالم. وبحسب الدراسات التي أُجريت حول آراء مستخدمي مواقع الصداقة والتواصل، فقد كانت النتائج إيجابية في مجملها، حيث أعلن مركز أننبرغ للمستقبل الرقمي، بجامعة جنوب كاليفورنيا، في تقريره السنوي السادس أن الإنترنت يُظهر الآن إمكاناته كأداة شخصية واجتماعية.
لكن شيئًا جديدًا يدخل عالم العلاقات الإنسانية عبر هذه المواقع التي تبدو بريئة. هناك سهولة التواصل بين الناس عبر الشاشة. لم يعد هناك حاجة للنهوض من المكتب والذهاب إلى منزل الصديق. لم يعد هناك حاجة للاجتماعات الأسبوعية، أو التجمعات في المقاهي والمطاعم. كل تلك الطرق المرهقة للتواصل يمكن الاستغناء عنها: بضغطة زر، تجد نفسك حيث تريد، على الموقع الذي يربطك بصديقك. هل يمكن أن تكون هذه صداقة حقيقية، حين تُبنى وتُنمّى بهذه السهولة واليسر؟ يُخبرنا تقرير مركز أننبرغ، بكل سرور، أن 20% من المشاركين في المجتمعات الإلكترونية يشاركون أيضًا في أنشطة واقعية مرتبطة بتلك المجتمعات، مرة واحدة على الأقل سنويًا. تخيل ذلك، مرة واحدة على الأقل سنويًا! أو فكر في الأمر من زاوية أخرى: إن ثمانين بالمائة كاملة من المشاركين في المجتمعات الإلكترونية لا يجرون أي تعاملات وجهاً لوجه على الإطلاق، ولا حتى مرة واحدة في السنة، مع أولئك الذين يعتبرونهم ��ن أصدقائهم.
بالطبع، تتجلى الصداقة الحقيقية في الأفعال والمودة. الصديق الحقيقي هو من يهبّ لنجدتك في وقت الحاجة، ويواسيك في الشدائد، ويشاركك نجاحه. يصعب تحقيق ذلك عبر الشاشة، فهي مجرد مصدر للمعلومات لا للأفعال. لا تمتد منها يدٌ لمواساة المتألم، أو لتقديم العون المالي، أو لصدّ ضربات العدو، مع أن أحد مستخدمي موقع التدوين "بروفي" أخبرنا أن شخصًا كان يلعب معه ألعاب الإنترنت لسنوات أرسل له 1500 دولار عندما كان في مأزق. هذا النوع من اللفتات العفوية ممكن في أي نوع من العلاقات، بالطبع. لكن يمكن القول إنه كلما زاد إشباع الناس لحاجتهم إلى الرفقة من خلال العلاقات التي تُبنى على الشاشة، قلّت فرصهم في بناء صداقات من ذلك النوع الآخر، ذلك النوع الذي يقدم العون والمواساة في محن الحياة الحقيقية.
.
Roger Scruton
Hiding Behind The Screen
Translated By #Maher_Razouk
لكن شيئًا جديدًا يدخل عالم العلاقات الإنسانية عبر هذه المواقع التي تبدو بريئة. هناك سهولة التواصل بين الناس عبر الشاشة. لم يعد هناك حاجة للنهوض من المكتب والذهاب إلى منزل الصديق. لم يعد هناك حاجة للاجتماعات الأسبوعية، أو التجمعات في المقاهي والمطاعم. كل تلك الطرق المرهقة للتواصل يمكن الاستغناء عنها: بضغطة زر، تجد نفسك حيث تريد، على الموقع الذي يربطك بصديقك. هل يمكن أن تكون هذه صداقة حقيقية، حين تُبنى وتُنمّى بهذه السهولة واليسر؟ يُخبرنا تقرير مركز أننبرغ، بكل سرور، أن 20% من المشاركين في المجتمعات الإلكترونية يشاركون أيضًا في أنشطة واقعية مرتبطة بتلك المجتمعات، مرة واحدة على الأقل سنويًا. تخيل ذلك، مرة واحدة على الأقل سنويًا! أو فكر في الأمر من زاوية أخرى: إن ثمانين بالمائة كاملة من المشاركين في المجتمعات الإلكترونية لا يجرون أي تعاملات وجهاً لوجه على الإطلاق، ولا حتى مرة واحدة في السنة، مع أولئك الذين يعتبرونهم ��ن أصدقائهم.
بالطبع، تتجلى الصداقة الحقيقية في الأفعال والمودة. الصديق الحقيقي هو من يهبّ لنجدتك في وقت الحاجة، ويواسيك في الشدائد، ويشاركك نجاحه. يصعب تحقيق ذلك عبر الشاشة، فهي مجرد مصدر للمعلومات لا للأفعال. لا تمتد منها يدٌ لمواساة المتألم، أو لتقديم العون المالي، أو لصدّ ضربات العدو، مع أن أحد مستخدمي موقع التدوين "بروفي" أخبرنا أن شخصًا كان يلعب معه ألعاب الإنترنت لسنوات أرسل له 1500 دولار عندما كان في مأزق. هذا النوع من اللفتات العفوية ممكن في أي نوع من العلاقات، بالطبع. لكن يمكن القول إنه كلما زاد إشباع الناس لحاجتهم إلى الرفقة من خلال العلاقات التي تُبنى على الشاشة، قلّت فرصهم في بناء صداقات من ذلك النوع الآخر، ذلك النوع الذي يقدم العون والمواساة في محن الحياة الحقيقية.
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Roger Scruton
Hiding Behind The Screen
Translated By #Maher_Razouk
July 20, 2016
Roger Scruton is always worth reading and this collection of essays is no exception. There are good pieces here on the tawdry nature of much modern art, the right attitude towards animals (where to my joy I learnt that the author dislikes cats), and much on building, planning, and environmentalism which Scruton rightly sees as a Conservative cause but one easily captured by the left. There are also intriguing oddities such as the essay on social integration produced by dancing (something loathe) I'm not sure that Scruton is right to say along with Krier that modern structural techniques necessarily lead to bad building - Gaudi after all hung the exterior of his buildings on invisible frames and they were intended to express the organic world in a way of which I think Scruton would approve. Similarly I'm unsure that we would have a more caring attitude to waste disposal if it wasn't done by individuals rather than the council. My feeling is that we would just have more fly tipping. There's an interesting piece on Dying in Time and "living shabbily", this makes a lot of sense for those of us in good health and fearful of what could happen in the future, but I thought it ducked the question of what can be done for those for whom this is no longer an option - those already dying slowly of terminal disease or senility. The question of the ethics of euthanasia in such circumstances is evaded. There is a good and timely piece at the end on the utter incompatibility of the Islamic world view with that of the west. Scruton however is perhaps a little too kind towards Christianity. In someways in tolerates western values not because it formed them but because it was captured and tamed by the west which molded it not vice versa. Overall a good and stimulating read and plenty of references to allow you to explore more. I certainly shall be looking up Len Krier.
January 17, 2022
A wonderful little collection of essays. My favorites are “Loving Animals” (a powerful reflection on rightly ordered loved in the vain of Aristotelian virtue), “Effing the Ineffable” (a very short and moving reflection on the need for transcendence, the tragedy of a life impoverished of transcendence, and the danger of being reductionistic regarding it all), “Building to Last” (a quintessential Scrutonian critique of the uglification of cities), and “Mourning Our Losses” (a reflection on Strauss’s ‘Metamorphosen’—a piece mourning the loss of Germany’s soul after the Second World War). This last essay was particularly inspiring and testifies to the enduring power of objectively beautiful art—it sanctifies.
September 16, 2023
Nemusíte být konzervativci, abyste ocenili myšlenkou poctivost esejů v této knize a autorovu erudici. Po přečtení knihy snad ti soudnější začnou polemizovat se skutečnými názory svých konzervativních oponentů a neatakují ve svatém rozhořčení slaměné panáky, na které nějaký milý uvědomělý občan nebo aktivistický novinář přidělal visačku "odpudivý konzervativní názor, teď veřejné mínění plivej a pak hned trhej tyhle zpátečníky." Mě kniha bavila, protože nepatřím ani do autorova tábora ani do tábora jeho hlavních progresivistických (levicově ehm prý liberálních) oponentů. Mě - "klasického liberála", proponenta absolutní svobody, hlavně té negativní, kterému není nic svaté a už vůbec ho nevzrušují Scrutonovy obhajoby národního státu nebo výhod malé lidské pospolitosti - ale autor také nešetří. ;)
July 4, 2020
Mais uma bela coletânea de artigos de Roger Scruton. A profundidade das reflexões e o conhecimento dele são sublimes.
November 19, 2017
Often dubbed as Britain's foremost conservative philosopher, in his recent collection of essays Confessions of Heretic Sir Roger Scruton's writes about many aspects of human life, giving suggestions as to how we might consider our behaviour and act in this world we have inherited.
The book consists of twelve essays on seemingly disparate subjects, ranging from the serious, such as nationality, governing rightly and nature conservation, to the more peripheral and superficial—but perhaps all the more important because of it—like dance, art, architecture and how we should love animals. Known for being a prolific writer, and still writing one or two books a year in his seventies, with this release from 2016 he shows no signs of slowing.
The Book
In a way you might expect a conservative to, he undertakes much criticism of leftism, arguing in favour of tradition, opposing change for change's sake, and encourages finding local solutions to local problems. On the topic of dance in particular, he writes in favour of the traditional and learned dances in which any age can participate, like folk or ballroom, instead of the dancing we might see in night clubs today, which is "the natural result of the education to which they have been exposed...directed to removing all ideas of elegance, distinction or grace from their behaviour, those old fashioned virtues being judged elitist and politically correct." A jab at the egalitarians, perhaps?
He is also critical of conspicuous modern architecture with grand socialist ambitions to reorder our towns, writing that they "shovel(ing) people into housing estates", and much of the buildings "seem to be modelled like a domestic utensil", offering "shelter, but cannot make a home".
And on the subject of environmentalism, it his view is that problems are made worse by the state, saying that it "interrupts the ways in which normal people solve their problems by free interaction." And by "expropriating the paths of rational consensus--as they are expropriated by the state, whenever it uses its power of eminent domain" the state causes more harm than good. Indeed, he has very little to say in favour of leftist thought.
However, poo pooing does not an eminent philosopher make. In interviews he says he regards part of his job as a writer and thinker to be one who 'gently affirms', and this book has plenty of such affirmations. Taking individual responsibility for one another and the area in which we live; recognising the goodness of national identity; appreciating beauty in artwork; seeking to live a brave life and a timely death; living with forgiveness of those who seek to harm us without hating them, as Christ would have us do--all make up positive aspects of this man's philosophy and gives one useful information as to how the conservative might see the world.
One last thing. The Nottinghill Editions publication I have is a hardback covered with a lovely blue material and, unusually but pleasantly, has the page numbers printed in red, which just makes a nice change. I mean, I wouldn't like all my books to have red page numbers, but, you know, it's not bad every now and then, for a change. Five stars.
The book consists of twelve essays on seemingly disparate subjects, ranging from the serious, such as nationality, governing rightly and nature conservation, to the more peripheral and superficial—but perhaps all the more important because of it—like dance, art, architecture and how we should love animals. Known for being a prolific writer, and still writing one or two books a year in his seventies, with this release from 2016 he shows no signs of slowing.
The Book
In a way you might expect a conservative to, he undertakes much criticism of leftism, arguing in favour of tradition, opposing change for change's sake, and encourages finding local solutions to local problems. On the topic of dance in particular, he writes in favour of the traditional and learned dances in which any age can participate, like folk or ballroom, instead of the dancing we might see in night clubs today, which is "the natural result of the education to which they have been exposed...directed to removing all ideas of elegance, distinction or grace from their behaviour, those old fashioned virtues being judged elitist and politically correct." A jab at the egalitarians, perhaps?
He is also critical of conspicuous modern architecture with grand socialist ambitions to reorder our towns, writing that they "shovel(ing) people into housing estates", and much of the buildings "seem to be modelled like a domestic utensil", offering "shelter, but cannot make a home".
And on the subject of environmentalism, it his view is that problems are made worse by the state, saying that it "interrupts the ways in which normal people solve their problems by free interaction." And by "expropriating the paths of rational consensus--as they are expropriated by the state, whenever it uses its power of eminent domain" the state causes more harm than good. Indeed, he has very little to say in favour of leftist thought.
However, poo pooing does not an eminent philosopher make. In interviews he says he regards part of his job as a writer and thinker to be one who 'gently affirms', and this book has plenty of such affirmations. Taking individual responsibility for one another and the area in which we live; recognising the goodness of national identity; appreciating beauty in artwork; seeking to live a brave life and a timely death; living with forgiveness of those who seek to harm us without hating them, as Christ would have us do--all make up positive aspects of this man's philosophy and gives one useful information as to how the conservative might see the world.
One last thing. The Nottinghill Editions publication I have is a hardback covered with a lovely blue material and, unusually but pleasantly, has the page numbers printed in red, which just makes a nice change. I mean, I wouldn't like all my books to have red page numbers, but, you know, it's not bad every now and then, for a change. Five stars.
June 2, 2020
This is a collection of provocative essays by late Roger Scruton, a conservative philosopher and social commentator. This wide selection of essays spans Scruton's formidable contribution to Western philosophy and social issues. He seeks to answer some of the pressing problems of our age: What can be done to protect Western values against Islamic extremism? How can we nurture real friendship in the age of social media? How should societies be governed rightly? How to think about environmentalism?
This is not an easy read and I ended up rereading some of the 12 essays and paragraphs contained in the short book several times. To fully appreciate the book, I provide a synopsis of Scruton's thinking that form the basis for the essays in this volume.
Best known for his writing in support of conservatism, Scruton's intellectual heroes were Edmund Burke, Coleridge, Dostoevsky, Hegel, Ruskin, and T. S. Eliot. He supported Margaret Thatcher, while remaining sceptical of her view of the market as a solution to everything.
Scruton was persuaded that, as he put it, the utopian promises of socialism are accompanied by an abstract vision of the mind that bears little relation to the way most people think. He was also convinced that there is no direction to history, no moral or spiritual progress; that people think collectively toward a common goal only during crises such as war, and that trying to organise
In his book Arguments for Conservatism (2006), Scruton marked out the areas in which philosophical thinking is required if conservatism is to be intellectually persuasive. He argued that human beings are creatures of limited and local affections. Territorial loyalty is at the root of all forms of government where law and liberty reign supreme; every expansion of jurisdiction beyond the frontiers of the nation state leads to a decline in accountability.
He opposed elevating the "nation" above its people, which would threaten rather than facilitate citizenship and peace. "Conservatism and conservation" are two aspects of a single policy, that of husbanding resources, including the social capital embodied in laws, customs and institutions, and the material capital contained in the environment. He argued further that the law should not be used as a weapon to advance special interests. People impatient for reform — for example in the areas of euthanasia or abortion — are reluctant to accept what may be "glaringly obvious to others — that the law exists precisely to impede their ambitions."
Scruton defines post-modernism as the claim that there are no grounds for truth, objectivity, and meaning, and that conflicts between views are therefore nothing more than contests of power. Scruton argued that, while the West is required to judge other cultures in their own terms, Western culture is adversely judged as ethnocentric and racist. He wrote: "The very reasoning which sets out to destroy the ideas of objective truth and absolute value imposes political correctness as absolutely binding, and cultural relativism as objectively true."
This is not an easy read and I ended up rereading some of the 12 essays and paragraphs contained in the short book several times. To fully appreciate the book, I provide a synopsis of Scruton's thinking that form the basis for the essays in this volume.
Best known for his writing in support of conservatism, Scruton's intellectual heroes were Edmund Burke, Coleridge, Dostoevsky, Hegel, Ruskin, and T. S. Eliot. He supported Margaret Thatcher, while remaining sceptical of her view of the market as a solution to everything.
Scruton was persuaded that, as he put it, the utopian promises of socialism are accompanied by an abstract vision of the mind that bears little relation to the way most people think. He was also convinced that there is no direction to history, no moral or spiritual progress; that people think collectively toward a common goal only during crises such as war, and that trying to organise
In his book Arguments for Conservatism (2006), Scruton marked out the areas in which philosophical thinking is required if conservatism is to be intellectually persuasive. He argued that human beings are creatures of limited and local affections. Territorial loyalty is at the root of all forms of government where law and liberty reign supreme; every expansion of jurisdiction beyond the frontiers of the nation state leads to a decline in accountability.
He opposed elevating the "nation" above its people, which would threaten rather than facilitate citizenship and peace. "Conservatism and conservation" are two aspects of a single policy, that of husbanding resources, including the social capital embodied in laws, customs and institutions, and the material capital contained in the environment. He argued further that the law should not be used as a weapon to advance special interests. People impatient for reform — for example in the areas of euthanasia or abortion — are reluctant to accept what may be "glaringly obvious to others — that the law exists precisely to impede their ambitions."
Scruton defines post-modernism as the claim that there are no grounds for truth, objectivity, and meaning, and that conflicts between views are therefore nothing more than contests of power. Scruton argued that, while the West is required to judge other cultures in their own terms, Western culture is adversely judged as ethnocentric and racist. He wrote: "The very reasoning which sets out to destroy the ideas of objective truth and absolute value imposes political correctness as absolutely binding, and cultural relativism as objectively true."
May 25, 2018
This is a thoroughly weird book. He shares concerns and ideas with which I agree--the awkward question of end of life choices and conservation of natural resources--which I have always been confused by the conservative allergy to as it has conserve I'm the name. But somewhere in all these essays he makes a hard right turn into places I do not want to go. He advocates an intentional sort of self neglect and dangerous activities as you age so you avoid the prospect of becoming a faded shadow in a chair waiting for death. He puts all blame squarely for lack of environmental protection on the government and argues that if the state butted out completely individual enterprise would have to face resource depletion and come to solutions. He makes a valid point about the failures of suburbs and the gutting of city centers for highways and projects which was full of unsustainable, unkind, impractical, and racist choices. However, he completely ignores the fact that our public commons include air and water and currently private enterprise is depleting water tables in India because unrestricted by the state and that it were not for government rules on emissions, our cars would spew more of them. Even now people living close to certain private enterprise suffer from higher rates of disease because of toxic emissions. It seems to me the best thing to say is that both government and private enterprise must share the blame and responsibility for our environment and trying to force all the blame on one party would be a mistake.
Those are just my thoughts on one essay. He cites as facts things which he believes but for which he cites no proofs or evidence and builds straw men leftists rather than quote real arguments made by thinkers on the left. I will not bother to find any more books by this author.
Those are just my thoughts on one essay. He cites as facts things which he believes but for which he cites no proofs or evidence and builds straw men leftists rather than quote real arguments made by thinkers on the left. I will not bother to find any more books by this author.
October 16, 2024
A series of essays on disconnected topics, though they progressively endeared me to the author's view and were not entirely without connection or progression.
Here are quotes with the essay title before each set.
Loving Animals
"Hence I don’t judge her adversely for her irritating dog or her equally irritating love for it: the fault is mine, like the fault of being upset by the selfishness of families, as they strive to secure the best seats on a train. Each of us has a sphere of love, and he is bound to the others who inhabit it."
Governing Rightly
"Only in certain conditions are people united in society not by organic necessity but by free consent. To put it simply, the human individual is a social construct. And the emergence of the individual in the course of history is part of what distinguishes our civilisation from so many of the other social ventures of mankind."
"Government emerges in small communities as the solution to a problem of coordination. Rules occur, not necessarily as commands delivered by some central authority, but as conventions spontaneously adhered to by everyone - like the conventions of good manners. The social contract therefore establishes a government that will protect and perpetuate and all allegiance that proceeded the contract and makes it possible. This allegiance is shaped by history and territory, and by all the forms of association that spring from these, notably language, customary law and religious observance. Seeing things in this way, religious observance is demoted to one factor among others, and is reshaped as a subject of law, rather than a source of it. That, to my mind, is the great achievement of European civilisation: to have placed man-made law at the heart of the community, to have subordinated all associations, including those stemming from religion, to the demands of the secular jurisdiction, and to have established the institutions through which law can adapt to changes in social life instead of blurting out some 'eternal' message revealed in circumstances that have vanished, leaving no other trace. I become fully myself only in contexts which compel me to recognise that I am another in others' eyes."
Hiding behind the Screen
"Many of these TV-free young people are home-schooled, or products of the Bible belt, used to singing hymns and saying prayers at home: and of course this means that they are often mocked by their liberal professors who despise the Bible belt, not seeing that it is the Bible belt that keeps up America's trousers."
"Risk avoidance in human relations means the avoidance of accountability, the refusal to stand judged in another's eyes, to come face to face with another person, to give yourself in whatever measure to him or her, and so to run the risk of rejection. Accountability is not something we should avoid; it is something we need to learn. Without it we can never acquire either the capacity to love or the virtue of justice."
Dying in Time
"Many of the most pressing 'end of life' issues result from medical advances that have reshaped the human condition, while appealing to moral considerations is appealing to the human condition as it was, and not as it is."
Conserving Nature
"Small-scale dealings between neighbours are self-correcting, and the free rider is seldom allowed to get away with it for long. If the people of a village are charged with disposing of their own waste, you can be sure that they will do so in the most ecologically acceptable way. If a state-owned cart comes each week to collect it, then the villagers will be largely indifferent to the fact that it is disposed of in ways that poison some distant waterway."
Defending the West
"As our law has developed it has permitted the privatisation of religion, and of large areas of morality. To us it is not just absurd but oppressive that there should be a law punishing adultery. We disapprove of adultery, but we also think that it is none of the law's business to punish sin just because it is sin. In the shari'ah, however, there is no distinction between morality and law: both stem from God, to be imposed by the religious authorities, in obedience to God's revealed will. To some extent the harshness of this is mitigated by the tradition which allows recommendations as well as obligations as rulings of the Holy Law. Nevertheless, there is still no scope in the shari'ah for the privatisation of the moral, still less of the religious, aspects of life."
"However convinced you are of the rightness of your actions and the truth of your views, look on them as the actions and the views of someone else, and rephrase them accordingly. So defined, irony is quite distinct from sarcasm: it is a mode of acceptance, rather than a mode of rejection."
"We must recognise that it is not envy, but resentment, that animates the terrorist. Envy is the desire to possess what the other has; resentment is the desire to destroy it. How do you deal with resentment? This is the great question that so few leaders of mankind have been able to answer. But Christians are fortunate in being heirs to the one great attempt to answer it, which was that of Christ, drawing on a long-standing Jewish tradition that goes back to the Torah, and which was also expressed in similar terms by Christ's contemporary, Rabbi Hillel. You overcome resentment, Christ told us, by forgiving it. To reach out in a spirit of forgiveness is not to accuse yourself; it is to make a gift to the other. And it is just here, it seems to me, that we have taken the wrong turn in recent decades. The illusion that we are to blame, that we must confess our faults and join our case to that of the enemy, exposes us to a more determined hatred. The truth is that we are not to blame, that the enemy's hatred is entirely unjustified, that his implacable enmity cannot be defused by our breast-beating. And this truth makes it seem as though we are powerless."
Here are quotes with the essay title before each set.
Loving Animals
"Hence I don’t judge her adversely for her irritating dog or her equally irritating love for it: the fault is mine, like the fault of being upset by the selfishness of families, as they strive to secure the best seats on a train. Each of us has a sphere of love, and he is bound to the others who inhabit it."
Governing Rightly
"Only in certain conditions are people united in society not by organic necessity but by free consent. To put it simply, the human individual is a social construct. And the emergence of the individual in the course of history is part of what distinguishes our civilisation from so many of the other social ventures of mankind."
"Government emerges in small communities as the solution to a problem of coordination. Rules occur, not necessarily as commands delivered by some central authority, but as conventions spontaneously adhered to by everyone - like the conventions of good manners. The social contract therefore establishes a government that will protect and perpetuate and all allegiance that proceeded the contract and makes it possible. This allegiance is shaped by history and territory, and by all the forms of association that spring from these, notably language, customary law and religious observance. Seeing things in this way, religious observance is demoted to one factor among others, and is reshaped as a subject of law, rather than a source of it. That, to my mind, is the great achievement of European civilisation: to have placed man-made law at the heart of the community, to have subordinated all associations, including those stemming from religion, to the demands of the secular jurisdiction, and to have established the institutions through which law can adapt to changes in social life instead of blurting out some 'eternal' message revealed in circumstances that have vanished, leaving no other trace. I become fully myself only in contexts which compel me to recognise that I am another in others' eyes."
Hiding behind the Screen
"Many of these TV-free young people are home-schooled, or products of the Bible belt, used to singing hymns and saying prayers at home: and of course this means that they are often mocked by their liberal professors who despise the Bible belt, not seeing that it is the Bible belt that keeps up America's trousers."
"Risk avoidance in human relations means the avoidance of accountability, the refusal to stand judged in another's eyes, to come face to face with another person, to give yourself in whatever measure to him or her, and so to run the risk of rejection. Accountability is not something we should avoid; it is something we need to learn. Without it we can never acquire either the capacity to love or the virtue of justice."
Dying in Time
"Many of the most pressing 'end of life' issues result from medical advances that have reshaped the human condition, while appealing to moral considerations is appealing to the human condition as it was, and not as it is."
Conserving Nature
"Small-scale dealings between neighbours are self-correcting, and the free rider is seldom allowed to get away with it for long. If the people of a village are charged with disposing of their own waste, you can be sure that they will do so in the most ecologically acceptable way. If a state-owned cart comes each week to collect it, then the villagers will be largely indifferent to the fact that it is disposed of in ways that poison some distant waterway."
Defending the West
"As our law has developed it has permitted the privatisation of religion, and of large areas of morality. To us it is not just absurd but oppressive that there should be a law punishing adultery. We disapprove of adultery, but we also think that it is none of the law's business to punish sin just because it is sin. In the shari'ah, however, there is no distinction between morality and law: both stem from God, to be imposed by the religious authorities, in obedience to God's revealed will. To some extent the harshness of this is mitigated by the tradition which allows recommendations as well as obligations as rulings of the Holy Law. Nevertheless, there is still no scope in the shari'ah for the privatisation of the moral, still less of the religious, aspects of life."
"However convinced you are of the rightness of your actions and the truth of your views, look on them as the actions and the views of someone else, and rephrase them accordingly. So defined, irony is quite distinct from sarcasm: it is a mode of acceptance, rather than a mode of rejection."
"We must recognise that it is not envy, but resentment, that animates the terrorist. Envy is the desire to possess what the other has; resentment is the desire to destroy it. How do you deal with resentment? This is the great question that so few leaders of mankind have been able to answer. But Christians are fortunate in being heirs to the one great attempt to answer it, which was that of Christ, drawing on a long-standing Jewish tradition that goes back to the Torah, and which was also expressed in similar terms by Christ's contemporary, Rabbi Hillel. You overcome resentment, Christ told us, by forgiving it. To reach out in a spirit of forgiveness is not to accuse yourself; it is to make a gift to the other. And it is just here, it seems to me, that we have taken the wrong turn in recent decades. The illusion that we are to blame, that we must confess our faults and join our case to that of the enemy, exposes us to a more determined hatred. The truth is that we are not to blame, that the enemy's hatred is entirely unjustified, that his implacable enmity cannot be defused by our breast-beating. And this truth makes it seem as though we are powerless."
October 25, 2020
Excellent
I have read several of Sir Roger’s books and have enjoyed them all, this one is no exception. Several of the essays I highlighted numerous passages, while others only a passage or two. The last essay on the issues within the Islamic community is highly informative. Highly recommended...SLT
I have read several of Sir Roger’s books and have enjoyed them all, this one is no exception. Several of the essays I highlighted numerous passages, while others only a passage or two. The last essay on the issues within the Islamic community is highly informative. Highly recommended...SLT
February 15, 2017
One of the most beautifully contemporary-printed books I own
March 6, 2019
An excellent introduction to Scrutonian thinking.
October 7, 2020
Everything by Roger Scruton is worth reading.
September 26, 2021
This book has an excellent introduction by Douglas Murray, a eulogy to Roger Scruton really. Liberals should probably avoid this book since it will seriously weaken the foundation of their beliefs.
Read
July 10, 2024Such an incredible read. I don’t agree with everything Scruton says, but he asks questions and presents answers in a way that compels me to be a better, deeper, more convicted thinker.
February 4, 2022
No better friend to the transcendentals than Roger Scruton.
July 21, 2025
My highlights suffice to explain the impact of the late Sir Roger's thinking on my own. He guided me over a decade of studying many of his challenging books (reminiscent of his predecessor George Steiner or successor Mark Dooley in their level above my own, always a selling point) towards a Burkean sensibility of conserving the small-scale, grassroots, and the local vs top-down. All characteristics of my own instinctual gravitation towards favoring what Catholic social teaching labels "subsidiarity," devolution of power as far down the chain of command as feasible, and granting governance to those who by consensus agree on their own solutions rather than what's boss-imposed.
Scruton advises that those leaning to the right affirm this model rather than assuming "government" equates to oppression of a libertarian untrammelled utopia of capitalism, license, and lawlessness. He notes how those in European welfare states, after disaster hits, wait for their appointed functionaries, while Americans (in my equivalent) roll up their sleeves to organize among sandbag-filling neighbors.
Other essays explore the failure of brutalist urban "planning"; modernism and kitsch; the appeal of communities organized so in ten minutes one may walk to do errands (cf. a COVID-era spin on this which played into similar concepts as conspiracy theories); animals; Islamic regression; Strauss' melancholic music; hastening one's death if senile by vintage pours and fatty feasts rather than assisted suicide or institutional warehousing; and moral advantages of not sitting at screens 24/7.
Sure, not every page shines. Still, he stimulates insight and opens up possible alternatives to EU and GB groupthink (now worse than when these pieces debuted). Some of his tone comes off as elitist. An exemplar of a rank enjoying fine wine, hunting with hounds, and revelling in Mitteleuropean culture--Continent, classics, and opera--familiar to Steiner, Stefan Zweig, Thomas Mann, amid sunny villas.
Like-minded British critic Douglas Murray adds a brief introduction to a 2021 "revised" version of this 2016 anthology (but I can't discern any other changes). It's a fitting if terse reminder of what Scruton encountered and Murray meets today: mocked by our media majority, yet respected (among a few holdouts against blinkered progressive scolds) for positions hard-won, faced with relentless attacks by supposedly educated leaders in political, academic, and "activist" closed circles. I reckon Scruton and Murray share what's a subversive if "marginalized" awareness of the folly of being corralled by naysayers, NGOs, and shadowy "foundations" funding campaigns, but as opposition, can principled philosophers prove savvy enough to call out their fair-weather false friends courting their votes now?
Scruton advises that those leaning to the right affirm this model rather than assuming "government" equates to oppression of a libertarian untrammelled utopia of capitalism, license, and lawlessness. He notes how those in European welfare states, after disaster hits, wait for their appointed functionaries, while Americans (in my equivalent) roll up their sleeves to organize among sandbag-filling neighbors.
Other essays explore the failure of brutalist urban "planning"; modernism and kitsch; the appeal of communities organized so in ten minutes one may walk to do errands (cf. a COVID-era spin on this which played into similar concepts as conspiracy theories); animals; Islamic regression; Strauss' melancholic music; hastening one's death if senile by vintage pours and fatty feasts rather than assisted suicide or institutional warehousing; and moral advantages of not sitting at screens 24/7.
Sure, not every page shines. Still, he stimulates insight and opens up possible alternatives to EU and GB groupthink (now worse than when these pieces debuted). Some of his tone comes off as elitist. An exemplar of a rank enjoying fine wine, hunting with hounds, and revelling in Mitteleuropean culture--Continent, classics, and opera--familiar to Steiner, Stefan Zweig, Thomas Mann, amid sunny villas.
Like-minded British critic Douglas Murray adds a brief introduction to a 2021 "revised" version of this 2016 anthology (but I can't discern any other changes). It's a fitting if terse reminder of what Scruton encountered and Murray meets today: mocked by our media majority, yet respected (among a few holdouts against blinkered progressive scolds) for positions hard-won, faced with relentless attacks by supposedly educated leaders in political, academic, and "activist" closed circles. I reckon Scruton and Murray share what's a subversive if "marginalized" awareness of the folly of being corralled by naysayers, NGOs, and shadowy "foundations" funding campaigns, but as opposition, can principled philosophers prove savvy enough to call out their fair-weather false friends courting their votes now?
May 11, 2024
I previously reviewed The Uses of Pessimism, so I am now giving this essay collection a try. It has been reissued with a Douglas Murray introduction. Murray, another author I gave the review treatment to, is something of a Scruton acolyte.
The first heretical confession is regarding modern art. He decries the inauthentic fakery and its accompanying circle-jerk of critic and patron who enable the whole facade; keeping one another in business as they go.
His writing turns to other animals in the second essay. He makes shaky points about personhood, with the old chestnut that they must be able to reciprocate in responsibilities, for us to spare them from their suffering. He made a fair point that when cats and dogs harass wild animals they cause them to waste vital calories that taxes their survival prospects. He also highlights the unhealthy ways we can project our needs onto domesticated animals.
On political governance, he begins to make points against the European Union. Scruton prefers the American system of small government and emphasises the responsibilities we hold to one another. He does, however, stop short of libertarianism and highlights how we are all reliant on others to some degree.
The next essay is a defence of the nation-state. He doesn’t believe we will sacrifice ourselves for any other concept in a secular society. Scruton argues that what makes Islamists such a pernicious presence in our societies is the belief that worldly concepts such as nations and leaders constitute idolatry. Only Allah is a permissible figurehead.
Europe, he felt makes a cult of minorities and materialism in order to break down existing cultural ties. Hungary received an EU backlash for daring to describe itself as a Christian nation rather than opening itself up fully to the deconstruction and disassembly project.
He remarks that it is destabilising to allow the European Courts of Justice and Human Rights to sweep away long-established and rooted groups. He rightly predicted that Britain would struggle to achieve any meaningful sense of independence after spending so much time within the superstate.
He concludes that proximity is the foundation of charity and sacrifice, the coming together of peoples. Remove borders and national strength and we will be reduced to the warring conflicts of tribal, racial and religious differences.
One of Scruton’s big concerns was the aesthetics of buildings and that is what he touches on next. He is critical of modernist brutalities. Many who live in classical homes advocate ugly architecture for the plebs. A case of “for ye but not for me.”
He is a fan of the Poundbury project in Dorset, which has had more thought put into it regarding amenities, proximity and community planning. “They will create a collection of somewhere in place of the ever-expanding nowhere.” A theme that recalls David Goodhart’s book The Road to Somewhere.
He tells us that the most harmonious surroundings are those that operate with a long-lasting emphasis rather than looking like litter and ending up as a landfill.
The transcendent has a lot of words utilised to describe it but Effing the Ineffable is fittingly the shortest essay. He highlights the precious, brief moments of sensing a brighter world that we cannot enter. More than science can quantify, it is suggestive of the sacred.
Next follows a critique of social media and the internet. Scruton accurately suggests that rather than a time of striving to know ourselves the motto of the day is instead “show yourself”. A mediated experience that we take part in from within our little cyber castle. We vicariously enact a risk-free experience in arenas in which we exercise control. Friendships are reduced to possible entertainment options (competing with clickbait, short videos etc.) and dopamine hits.
Using Strauss’ Metamorphosen as a centre point he then speaks of loss. WWII Germany was bombed to rubble and ravaged by the invading Soviet troops but was not allowed to grieve because of a perceived sense of group guilt.
In the essay Dying in Time Scruton is surprisingly supportive of a light form of euthanasia. He bemoans the quest for longevity and the cluttering up of the planet with our permanent presence.
No, death is not the worst thing that can happen and a grisly period or ending is potentially around the corner; “judge no man happy until he is dead.” We can hang on too long.
It is cowardly and craven to try to hold onto life and it is better to have depth in life rather than length. Scruton advocates running down the body with vices (he famously took sponsorship from Japan Tobacco to promote smoking) rather than ending up in a compromised state where you are dependent on being handled by care staff.
On the topic of the environment, he puts across the point of view that rather than deserving its leftwing emphasis environmentalism is the quintessential conservative cause. An ideology of care could never lead to the rampant exploitation of the denuded waterways and landscapes in the Soviet Union.
Ever the aesthete he finds wind turbines to be a blight on the landscape and doesn’t engage with anthropogenic climate change. A mistrust of climate science is a common failing on the part of the conservative milieu.
Instead, aesthetics are most important and our guide should be that which looks and feels right. Suburban sprawl and prolonged travel commutes are the biggest problems. The Poundbury project is again celebrated.
Local responsibility is key here and the love of home is anathema to leftists. The systematic defence of the nation supports serious environmentalism. He rightly highlights overpopulation within the UK:
"Take the example of Great Britain. Our environment has been a preoccupation of political decision-making for a very long time. Landscape, agriculture and climate have been iconised in our art and literature and become foundational for our sentiments of national identity. Our planning laws, immigration laws and transport strategies until recently reflected this. However, we also know that our country is overcrowded, that its environment is being eroded by urban sprawl, commuter traffic and non-biodegradable waste, that its agriculture is under threat from European edicts and that — largely on account of the recent surge in immigration — our population is growing beyond our capacity to absorb the environmental costs."
Akin to Murray’s The War On The West Scruton concludes the collection with a defence of Western values, lest they be subsumed by the certainty of the Islamic population with its submission to a God. Theirs is a world of family honour, terror, assassinations and failed nations with no man ever accepted as worthy to rule.
Roger calls for a bullishness and renewal of confidence. No longer should we reward and highlight those who tear down and attack our institutions. Stop the hand-wringing and guilt trips and defend our cultural inheritance. Or else.
Alcohol created rapid kinship between Europeans and Christianity has a sense of irony he tells us. Christian cultures withheld casting the first stone, knowing the nuanced failings of humanity all too well. Meanwhile, competing cultures are quick to enforce mob rule and resort (sometimes) literally to the casting of stones.
Without this renewal we will be seen as weak and weakness will be punished and exploited. Does this warning narrative sound at all accurate in the summative assessment of Western demise?
The first heretical confession is regarding modern art. He decries the inauthentic fakery and its accompanying circle-jerk of critic and patron who enable the whole facade; keeping one another in business as they go.
His writing turns to other animals in the second essay. He makes shaky points about personhood, with the old chestnut that they must be able to reciprocate in responsibilities, for us to spare them from their suffering. He made a fair point that when cats and dogs harass wild animals they cause them to waste vital calories that taxes their survival prospects. He also highlights the unhealthy ways we can project our needs onto domesticated animals.
On political governance, he begins to make points against the European Union. Scruton prefers the American system of small government and emphasises the responsibilities we hold to one another. He does, however, stop short of libertarianism and highlights how we are all reliant on others to some degree.
The next essay is a defence of the nation-state. He doesn’t believe we will sacrifice ourselves for any other concept in a secular society. Scruton argues that what makes Islamists such a pernicious presence in our societies is the belief that worldly concepts such as nations and leaders constitute idolatry. Only Allah is a permissible figurehead.
Europe, he felt makes a cult of minorities and materialism in order to break down existing cultural ties. Hungary received an EU backlash for daring to describe itself as a Christian nation rather than opening itself up fully to the deconstruction and disassembly project.
He remarks that it is destabilising to allow the European Courts of Justice and Human Rights to sweep away long-established and rooted groups. He rightly predicted that Britain would struggle to achieve any meaningful sense of independence after spending so much time within the superstate.
He concludes that proximity is the foundation of charity and sacrifice, the coming together of peoples. Remove borders and national strength and we will be reduced to the warring conflicts of tribal, racial and religious differences.
One of Scruton’s big concerns was the aesthetics of buildings and that is what he touches on next. He is critical of modernist brutalities. Many who live in classical homes advocate ugly architecture for the plebs. A case of “for ye but not for me.”
He is a fan of the Poundbury project in Dorset, which has had more thought put into it regarding amenities, proximity and community planning. “They will create a collection of somewhere in place of the ever-expanding nowhere.” A theme that recalls David Goodhart’s book The Road to Somewhere.
He tells us that the most harmonious surroundings are those that operate with a long-lasting emphasis rather than looking like litter and ending up as a landfill.
The transcendent has a lot of words utilised to describe it but Effing the Ineffable is fittingly the shortest essay. He highlights the precious, brief moments of sensing a brighter world that we cannot enter. More than science can quantify, it is suggestive of the sacred.
Next follows a critique of social media and the internet. Scruton accurately suggests that rather than a time of striving to know ourselves the motto of the day is instead “show yourself”. A mediated experience that we take part in from within our little cyber castle. We vicariously enact a risk-free experience in arenas in which we exercise control. Friendships are reduced to possible entertainment options (competing with clickbait, short videos etc.) and dopamine hits.
Using Strauss’ Metamorphosen as a centre point he then speaks of loss. WWII Germany was bombed to rubble and ravaged by the invading Soviet troops but was not allowed to grieve because of a perceived sense of group guilt.
In the essay Dying in Time Scruton is surprisingly supportive of a light form of euthanasia. He bemoans the quest for longevity and the cluttering up of the planet with our permanent presence.
No, death is not the worst thing that can happen and a grisly period or ending is potentially around the corner; “judge no man happy until he is dead.” We can hang on too long.
It is cowardly and craven to try to hold onto life and it is better to have depth in life rather than length. Scruton advocates running down the body with vices (he famously took sponsorship from Japan Tobacco to promote smoking) rather than ending up in a compromised state where you are dependent on being handled by care staff.
On the topic of the environment, he puts across the point of view that rather than deserving its leftwing emphasis environmentalism is the quintessential conservative cause. An ideology of care could never lead to the rampant exploitation of the denuded waterways and landscapes in the Soviet Union.
Ever the aesthete he finds wind turbines to be a blight on the landscape and doesn’t engage with anthropogenic climate change. A mistrust of climate science is a common failing on the part of the conservative milieu.
Instead, aesthetics are most important and our guide should be that which looks and feels right. Suburban sprawl and prolonged travel commutes are the biggest problems. The Poundbury project is again celebrated.
Local responsibility is key here and the love of home is anathema to leftists. The systematic defence of the nation supports serious environmentalism. He rightly highlights overpopulation within the UK:
"Take the example of Great Britain. Our environment has been a preoccupation of political decision-making for a very long time. Landscape, agriculture and climate have been iconised in our art and literature and become foundational for our sentiments of national identity. Our planning laws, immigration laws and transport strategies until recently reflected this. However, we also know that our country is overcrowded, that its environment is being eroded by urban sprawl, commuter traffic and non-biodegradable waste, that its agriculture is under threat from European edicts and that — largely on account of the recent surge in immigration — our population is growing beyond our capacity to absorb the environmental costs."
Akin to Murray’s The War On The West Scruton concludes the collection with a defence of Western values, lest they be subsumed by the certainty of the Islamic population with its submission to a God. Theirs is a world of family honour, terror, assassinations and failed nations with no man ever accepted as worthy to rule.
Roger calls for a bullishness and renewal of confidence. No longer should we reward and highlight those who tear down and attack our institutions. Stop the hand-wringing and guilt trips and defend our cultural inheritance. Or else.
Alcohol created rapid kinship between Europeans and Christianity has a sense of irony he tells us. Christian cultures withheld casting the first stone, knowing the nuanced failings of humanity all too well. Meanwhile, competing cultures are quick to enforce mob rule and resort (sometimes) literally to the casting of stones.
Without this renewal we will be seen as weak and weakness will be punished and exploited. Does this warning narrative sound at all accurate in the summative assessment of Western demise?
December 29, 2022
Scruton bol filozofom, ktorý aj reálne mal nejakú filozofiu. Jeho texty sú neodolateľné práve kvôli pozitívnej hodnote, ktorú dokážu čitateľovi priniesť prostredníctvom návrhov vlastných riešení problémov vo svete okolo nás, nielen ich kritikou, bohužiaľ takou typickou pre množstvo reakčných konzervatívnych spisovateľov.
Scruton miloval Západ, jeho právo, umenie, užívanie alkoholu (!), mestá, športové a pánske kluby, vidiecky štýl života a filozofiu. Je nemožné, aby sa čitateľ touto láskou nenakazil a nepozeral sa po prečítaní Scrutonových esejí, kde sa snaží prísť tejto svojej láske na koreň, na svet okolo seba trochu… Vďačnejšie.
A o čom konkrétne Scruton píše v textoch, ktoré sú súčasťou tejto zbierky? O tom, ako ktosi uniesol západné umenie (a čo s tým robiť); prečo majú ľudia tak radi svoje zvieratá; prečo potrebujeme pozitívnu koncepciu vlády; prečo je národný štát nevyhnutnosťou pre budúcnosť Európy; ako budovat krásne mestá a prečo netreba oddeľovať nosné prvky budovy od jej fasády; ako sa na našom živote odrazí budovanie si virtuálneho alter ega; prečo je samotné trúchlenie nad stratou niečoho dobré; ako sa má človek vysporiadať so svojou smrťou; ako má vyzerať správna ochrana prírody a čím sa Západ líši od islamských spoločností (a ako s tým súvisí alkohol).
Najviac sa mi páčili eseje o umení a architektúre (nikdy by som si nebol pomyslel, že ma tieto oblasti takto zaujmú), no jednu hviezdu som strhol za argumentáciu o eutanázii, tá bola so svojím zamieňaním pojmov dôstojnosti a osobnosti až nescrutonovsky povrchná…
Odporúčam! (Pri krbe, s vínom a so Straussom v pozadí.)
Scruton miloval Západ, jeho právo, umenie, užívanie alkoholu (!), mestá, športové a pánske kluby, vidiecky štýl života a filozofiu. Je nemožné, aby sa čitateľ touto láskou nenakazil a nepozeral sa po prečítaní Scrutonových esejí, kde sa snaží prísť tejto svojej láske na koreň, na svet okolo seba trochu… Vďačnejšie.
A o čom konkrétne Scruton píše v textoch, ktoré sú súčasťou tejto zbierky? O tom, ako ktosi uniesol západné umenie (a čo s tým robiť); prečo majú ľudia tak radi svoje zvieratá; prečo potrebujeme pozitívnu koncepciu vlády; prečo je národný štát nevyhnutnosťou pre budúcnosť Európy; ako budovat krásne mestá a prečo netreba oddeľovať nosné prvky budovy od jej fasády; ako sa na našom živote odrazí budovanie si virtuálneho alter ega; prečo je samotné trúchlenie nad stratou niečoho dobré; ako sa má človek vysporiadať so svojou smrťou; ako má vyzerať správna ochrana prírody a čím sa Západ líši od islamských spoločností (a ako s tým súvisí alkohol).
Najviac sa mi páčili eseje o umení a architektúre (nikdy by som si nebol pomyslel, že ma tieto oblasti takto zaujmú), no jednu hviezdu som strhol za argumentáciu o eutanázii, tá bola so svojím zamieňaním pojmov dôstojnosti a osobnosti až nescrutonovsky povrchná…
Odporúčam! (Pri krbe, s vínom a so Straussom v pozadí.)
July 17, 2017
This is a very elegant collection of some of Scruton's best writing on a very wide variety of topics. I wish that he and his publishers could quit the persecution complex, after all, it's quite hard to believe that you are shunned or remotely castigated by academia when you've occupied teaching positions for decades and had nearly 40 books published.
Anyway, at times feisty, polemic, or poetic; Scruton writes in very engaging and quite clear prose throughout. At times he even manages to be quite funny, except to cat owners that is: "The domestic cat is, without exception, the most devastating of all the alien species that have been brought onto our island, and the worst of it is that, thanks to the sentimentality of the British animal lover, it is a crime to shoot them."
Topics covered here included modern art/architecture, music, animal life in the countryside of Britain, dying and end of life care, conservation/climate change, as well as notions of the proper size of government. Fun, quick reading that at times manages to be quite thought-provoking.
Anyway, at times feisty, polemic, or poetic; Scruton writes in very engaging and quite clear prose throughout. At times he even manages to be quite funny, except to cat owners that is: "The domestic cat is, without exception, the most devastating of all the alien species that have been brought onto our island, and the worst of it is that, thanks to the sentimentality of the British animal lover, it is a crime to shoot them."
Topics covered here included modern art/architecture, music, animal life in the countryside of Britain, dying and end of life care, conservation/climate change, as well as notions of the proper size of government. Fun, quick reading that at times manages to be quite thought-provoking.
July 17, 2023
Cultural and political conservatives often fall into the trap of getting so caught up in attacking the things they're against that they forget to promote and defend the things they are for. Scruton provides solid ground to stand on in the latter regard, whether the topic is religion, citizenship, death, nationhood, culture, art, architecture, aesthetics, conservation, and even pets. Lots of good stuff here to make you think. Some of my favorite passages:
"Kitsch tells you how nice you are... Beauty tells you to stop thinking about yourself, and to wake up to the world of others."
"Public spirit grows only among people who are free to act on it, and to take pleasure in the result."
"It is only by entering [the world of risks, conflicts, and responsibilities] that I come to know myself as free, to enjoy my own perspective and individualism."
"Our search for beauty is not just a matter of private whim, but on the contrary, a way in which we strive to shape the world to our needs, and our needs to the world."
"With really big issues, you need to think small."
"Kitsch tells you how nice you are... Beauty tells you to stop thinking about yourself, and to wake up to the world of others."
"Public spirit grows only among people who are free to act on it, and to take pleasure in the result."
"It is only by entering [the world of risks, conflicts, and responsibilities] that I come to know myself as free, to enjoy my own perspective and individualism."
"Our search for beauty is not just a matter of private whim, but on the contrary, a way in which we strive to shape the world to our needs, and our needs to the world."
"With really big issues, you need to think small."
January 17, 2020
Really good read and Roger Scruton's insight as to the conservation of communities, environment, and architecture is profound. In a few of his other essays he makes certain claims that are either really broad strokes and generalized without backing them up extensively - the arguments are good enough to affirm somebodies position if it's already in line with his own - but I imagine they do very little to convince someone that holds a different position.
Roger Scruton passed away only days ago while I was reading his chapter on "Dying in Time" - needless to say it changed the way that I read that chapter as it held a certain extra significance.
Roger Scruton passed away only days ago while I was reading his chapter on "Dying in Time" - needless to say it changed the way that I read that chapter as it held a certain extra significance.
September 30, 2019
The first chapter, on Faking It, was extraordinary. I was taken aback by its prescience and hard hitting truth. Loving Animals confirmed my opinion exactly; Governing Rightly really made me think. But, after that, the chapters on dancing, architecture and social media felt entirely overblown and the lofty air of wisdom became stale. I am typically attracted to controversy but this became less radical and more berating as the chapters went on. Scruton letting off steam, raging against the mindless gyrating youth... I gave up at chapter 9.
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August 21, 2021Um ano pra ler esse livro. É bom? É. Mas coletâneas de artigos, redações, poemas, etc não são pra mim. E, por incrível que pareça já que não sou muito fã de capítulos curtinhos, acho que vários dos artigos poderiam ser dois ou três capítulos. Eles abordam um tema principal, mas as tangentes funcionariam bem em um formato independente e as vezes fazem com que você esqueça qual era o tópico até chegar a conclusão.
February 28, 2022
I love listening to Roger Scruton, and this is the first of his writings that I've read. I find him easier to understand and more enjoyable in his talks, though his humour and wit does still carry in his writing. This collection of essays was nonetheless fantastic. Some were better than others, but on the whole, it left me feeling moved to think more carefully and analytically and in particular to be more well researched in forming my own conclusions, all things he was evidently gifted at.
March 8, 2019
Scruton at his best is very good (see his Conservatism), but this is a mixed bag. His prose is of an inconsistent quality. His ideas, however, are generally worthwhile, though not always exciting. For the record, he isn’t much of a heretic, not at all worth burning at the stake. At least not by my standards.
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