André Gide liked to scandalize enquirers by saying: "Je ne suis pas tapette, monsieur, je suis pédéraste!" ("I am not a fairy, Sir, I am a pederast!") In a similar spirit I am sometimes tempted to assert: "I'm not really a conservative — more of a reactionary." It's not true, though. I wonder if it really can be. It is all very well to speak of standing athwart history crying "Stop!" but history will not stop, and there are some respects in which even the most sincerely conservative of us would not wish it to.

John Derbyshire asks a good question - how can one claim to be a reactionary in today's world? There are good reasons why reaction is tempiting and we might want the world to be like it used to, at least in some ways. One recent GNXP post describes how many of our instincts are poorly adapted to living in a free economy and electing our rulers - an idea I've mentioned before. That doesn't necessarily mean we should live in a world like the one we are adapted to, though - a few days earlier another post on GNXP reminded us of how that world really sucked in a lot of ways compared to what we have today. That makes for some chaos and confusion, but I'd rather deal with that and (to pick an easy example) be able to eat five kilos of meat a week, you know? It sure as hell is worth it.

I do like to call myself a reactionary, though. I like to complain about the American Revolution and the October Revolution in the same breath. That doesn't mean I want to live in the world before the American Revolution, but I think a world in which the rebels lost that one would be a better world. I might not be a "true" reactionary, then, only a political one. As Mencius Moldbug once wrote, "I feel no hesitation in informing you with absolute confidence that the common concept of progress, which perhaps you are operating under, is a lie and a delusion and a snare. At least inasmuch as that term applies to the problem of human government, and not physics, oil painting, or backgammon. There is no reason to think the political designs of 2007 are any better than those of 1907, 1807, or 7."

I like progress. I like the modern world. I just don't like progress in politics, that's all. I don't think there's any contradiction there. After all, many of the most progressive progressives are extremely reactionary when it comes to everything except politics.