Veritas et Sapientia-Let Us Quest To Become “High Tories”

Mandeville, LA – [Editor’s note: From a review of Ron Dart’s The North American High Tory Tradition, by Grant Havers. This list of “High tory” values looks very familiar to me and will to those studying the Ancient Regimes of Christendom. – MC]

What, then, constitutes the philosophy of High Toryism? Drawing heavily upon the ideas of Hooker, Swift, Johnson, Coleridge, Wordsworth, and especially George Grant, Dart outlines ten principles which form this tradition:

Tories are concerned about the wisdom of tradition
Tories have a passion for both the commonweal and the commons
Tories oppose any separation of ethics from economics
Tories respect the environment, over and above the imperatives of profit
Tories insist that the state and society work together, rather than opposing each other (as in the liberal tradition)
Tories support a state which above all protects the common good rather than the individual right to private property
The Tory notion of education stresses studying and respecting the “classics and epics” which constitute the great works of the tradition
Tories understand human nature as imperfect, finite, and fallible, resistant to fundamental transformation through reform or revolution
A Tory state is based on high ethical principle and religion (especially Anglican Christianity)
Tories believe that there is a higher, nobler good to which politics should aspire, in contrast to endless debates over rights and liberties which play to the “lowest common denominator.”

At this point, American readers who have faithfully read the works of Edmund Burke and Russell Kirk may justifiably wonder why their nation’s conservatism does not conform substantively to any of these principles. – Canada as Cradle of Conservatism

TheKingDude

Host of the Mike Church Show on The Veritas Radio Network's CRUSADE Channel & Founder of the Veritas Radio Network. Formerly, of Sirius/XM's Patriot channel 125. The show began in March of 2003 exclusively on Sirius and remains "the longest running radio talk show in satellite radio history".

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