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policy, but who are interested in defending what they take to be
concrete and visible national interests. And there are also messianics
who think of an American mission in the world. Finally, of course, we
come to the business of the corporate elites, some of whom are very glad
to
purvey these ideas, and some of whom have their doubts.
It seems to me that the neoconservatives in a sense are not
conservatives at a ll. It's very hard
to
trace a direct line of descent from
Edmund Burke and Joseph De Maistre to the more vulgar of our
contemporaries. In any case their espousal of certain notions of the free
market also marks a break with profound American tendencies in
conservatism. These were perhaps better expressed by theologians like
Niebuhr. 0 bviousl y they ignore the threats to
Ii
berty, and to choice,
and
to
the forging of a more equitable, a more just, a more sane,
national community.
There seems to be a compulsive note of affirmation in much of
what the neoconservatives say, or at least a withdrawal from the
problems posed not alone by the eighties but by the foreseeable human
future-a kind of sacrilization of the present.
I have disagreed with Peter Steinfels on this before. I am not
convinced the movement is important. I think it will probably frag–
ment and regroup in ways that at the moment are very difficult
to
foresee.
William Phillips:
Our speakers have waived their rights of argument
and refutation and have sugges ted that we open up the discussion. I
have one question. What I find missing from Norman Birnbaum's
strong criticism of the neoconservative position is any indication
why the neoconservatives have allracted so much intellectual sup–
port. They must be responding to or pUlling their finger on some
prob lems in our society that are not being responded to properly by
the liberals and the left. Also, I disagree with Norman Birnbaum's
view of culture in its historical or experimental forms. One of the
illnesses of our time is the breakdown of the traditional culture, the
fragmentation of tradition, the loss of intellectual authority. The
answer is not in " cultural pluralism," which is the slogan of people
who have no use for intellectual traditions. Also, America is not
solving its foreign policy problems. Therefore, unless we believe the
neoconservatives have some kind of validity, we must ascribe their
influence on other intellectuals
to
stupidity.
Robert Nozick:
William Phillips said that the neoconservative move–
ment is the only movement that he has ever heard of that doesn't
