Are Leftists a Bunch of Fools, Frauds, and Firebrands?
Roger Scruton thought so. As a leftist, I found his criticisms insightful, if ultimately flawed.
I greeted Roger Scruton’s passing earlier this year with considerable sadness. Throughout his long career as a philosopher and public intellectual, Scruton displayed a rare interdisciplinary competency, commenting on everything from aesthetic theory to multiculturalism and even drinking wine — all delivered with his signature biting wit and British affect. I also came to appreciate Scruton even more for an unusual reason.
A proud conservative, Scruton was relentlessly critical of the political left for its intellectual and political limitations. But unlike so many of his peers, Scruton was actually willing to go beyond sloganeering about “social justice activism” and empty neologisms like “postmodern neo-Marxism” to engage specific authors and ideas to show why he thought they were wrong. Never one to mince words, Scruton’s attacks were often visceral and even instinctive. Sometimes they were ludicrously off base. But they were never boring, and Scruton could be an insightful critic even for those of us on the political left.
Scruton’s 2015 book Fools, Frauds, and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left stands as his final and most comprehensive…
