Well not really on American conservatism, but for this particular conservative, these words from Essays in Persuasion carry immediate relevance:
Half the copybook wisdom of our statesmen is based on assumptions which were at one time true, or partly true, but are now less and less true by the day. We have to invent new wisdom for a new age. And in the meantime we must, if we are to do any good, appear unorthodox, troublesome, dangerous, disobedient to them that begat us. (p. 183)
3 responses so far
1 nancyanny // Feb 6, 2010 at 10:22 am
don’t know how your conservative readership will embrace your embracing keynes’ socialist economic ideals
i appreciate it, and do find relevance indeed.
2 sinz54 // Feb 6, 2010 at 11:33 am
Keynes said that, while his own work provided a plausible rationale for politicians to do what they always wanted to do: Spend money on pork projects.
Keynes lived long enough to see his ideas perverted into pork and redistributionist schemes. Did he ever speak out against those?
3 sinz54 // Feb 6, 2010 at 2:43 pm
I should have added that Keynes did not believe in permanent Federal deficits, especially not for permanent redistributionist schemes like Medicare and Medicaid. Keynes saw pump-priming as a temporary aid for an economy that had temporarily stumbled. He did NOT see Federal spending as an excuse to remake America along socialist lines.
But Obama, like FDR before him, cherry-picks lines out of Keynes’ works to rationalize their pre-conceived notions about making America more like a European social democracy.
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