Irving Kristol
The intellectual godfather of neoconservatism
Irving Kristol died Friday. From the 1950s through the 1990s, Kristol’s thought characterized a strain of conservatism known as neoconservatism. It is fascinating intellectual story. The evolution of liberal, Trostskyite intellectuals – who were, as Kristol famously described, “mugged by reality” – into conservative standard-bearers.
This is a description that summarized Kristol’s own experiences as a New Deal Democrat who questioned the means (though not necessarily the ends) of President Johnson’s Great Society. Kristol and neoconservatives like him believed in the limits of social policy, that is, the extent to which government programs can produce positive results without unintended negative consequences. With Kristol’s help, this idea came to animate Ronald Reagan’s presidency, the high point for neoconservativism.
In his writing Kristol took his beliefs to the extreme, but it would be false to say he was far to the right in a traditional sense. Neoconservatism never did fit well in the left-right spectrum that commentators use to simplify American politics. At least in its pre-George W. Bush form, it was in many ways an ideology of liberal ends through conservative means.
Summarizing his intellectual history, Kristol writes, “Ever since I can remember I’ve been a neo-something: a neo-Marxist, a neo-Trotskyist, a neo-liberal, a neo-conservative…I’m going to end up a neo. Just neo, that’s all. Neo-dash-nothing.” For today’s political debate, this may be his most important thought. Neoconservatism has thrived most when challenging a status quo – of the right or the left. Kristol writes that his two most significant intellectual influences were Lionel Trilling, “a skeptical liberal,” and Leo Strauss, “a skeptical conservative.” In becoming the status quo of the Bush Administration, the ideology it seems lost this skeptical nature. Modern day neoconservatives would do well to relearn it.
To facilitate this task, The Public Philosopher offers some Irving Kristol required reading:
Conservative intellectuals on Kristol
William F. Buckley – “Irving’s Whodunit”
John Podhoretz – “Irving Kristol, 1920-2009″
Newspaper editorials
Irving Kristol in his own words
“The Neoconservative Persuasion”
Wall Street Journal highlights
-Marc
Related posts:
- Irving Kristol, from left to right
- Where are the liberal demagogues?
- Kristol on “Don’t Ask”
- Compromise
- Does symbolism matter in the pursuit of justice?
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