Confessions of a Heretic
Reviewing the 2016 Collection of Roger Scruton Essays
I previously reviewed The Uses of Pessimism, so I am now giving this essay collection a try. It has been reissued with a Douglas Murray introduction. Murray, another author I gave the review treatment to, is something of a Scruton acolyte.
The first heretical confession is regarding modern art. He decries the inauthentic fakery and its accompanying circle-jerk of critic and patron who enable the whole facade; keeping one another in business as they go.
His writing turns to other animals in the second essay. He makes shaky points about personhood, with the old chestnut that they must be able to reciprocate in responsibilities, for us to spare them from their suffering. He made a fair point that when cats and dogs harass wild animals they cause them to waste vital calories that taxes their survival prospects. He also highlights the unhealthy ways we can project our needs onto domesticated animals.
On political governance, he begins to make points against the European Union. Scruton prefers the American system of small government and emphasises the responsibilities we hold to one another. He does, however, stop short of libertarianism and highlights how we are all reliant on others to some degree.
The next essay is a defence of the nation-state. He doesn’t believe we will sacrifice ourselves for any other concept in a secular society. Scruton argues that what makes Islamists such a pernicious presence in our societies is the belief that worldly concepts such as nations and leaders constitute idolatry. Only Allah is a permissible figurehead.
Europe, he felt makes a cult of minorities and materialism in order to break down existing cultural ties. Hungary received an EU backlash for daring to describe itself as a Christian nation rather than opening itself up fully to the deconstruction and disassembly project.
He remarks that it is destabilising to allow the European Courts of Justice and Human Rights to sweep away long-established and rooted groups. He rightly predicted that Britain would struggle to achieve any meaningful sense of independence after spending so much time within the superstate.
He concludes that proximity is the foundation of charity and sacrifice, the coming together of peoples. Remove borders and national strength and we will be reduced to the warring conflicts of tribal, racial and religious differences.
One of Scruton’s big concerns was the aesthetics of buildings and that is what he touches on next. He is critical of modernist brutalities. Many who live in classical homes advocate ugly architecture for the plebs. A case of “for ye but not for me.”
He is a fan of the Poundbury project in Dorset, which has had more thought put into it regarding amenities, proximity and community planning. “They will create a collection of somewhere in place of the ever-expanding nowhere.” A theme that recalls David Goodhart’s book The Road to Somewhere.
He tells us that the most harmonious surroundings are those that operate with a long-lasting emphasis rather than looking like litter and ending up as a landfill.
The transcendent has a lot of words utilised to describe it but Effing the Ineffable is fittingly the shortest essay. He highlights the precious, brief moments of sensing a brighter world that we cannot enter. More than science can quantify, it is suggestive of the sacred.
Next follows a critique of social media and the internet. Scruton accurately suggests that rather than a time of striving to know ourselves the motto of the day is instead “show yourself”. A mediated experience that we take part in from within our little cyber castle. We vicariously enact a risk-free experience in arenas in which we exercise control. Friendships are reduced to possible entertainment options (competing with clickbait, short videos etc.) and dopamine hits.
Using Strauss’ Metamorphosen as a centre point he then speaks of loss. WWII Germany was bombed to rubble and ravaged by the invading Soviet troops but was not allowed to grieve because of a perceived sense of group guilt.
In the essay Dying in Time Scruton is surprisingly supportive of a light form of euthanasia. He bemoans the quest for longevity and the cluttering up of the planet with our permanent presence.
No, death is not the worst thing that can happen and a grisly period or ending is potentially around the corner; “judge no man happy until he is dead.” We can hang on too long.
It is cowardly and craven to try to hold onto life and it is better to have depth in life rather than length. Scruton advocates running down the body with vices (he famously took sponsorship from Japan Tobacco to promote smoking) rather than ending up in a compromised state where you are dependent on being handled by care staff.
On the topic of the environment, he puts across the point of view that rather than deserving its leftwing emphasis environmentalism is the quintessential conservative cause. An ideology of care could never lead to the rampant exploitation of the denuded waterways and landscapes in the Soviet Union.
Ever the aesthete he finds wind turbines to be a blight on the landscape and doesn’t engage with anthropogenic climate change. A mistrust of climate science is a common failing on the part of the conservative milieu.
Instead, aesthetics are most important and our guide should be that which looks and feels right. Suburban sprawl and prolonged travel commutes are the biggest problems. The Poundbury project is again celebrated.
Local responsibility is key here and the love of home is anathema to leftists. The systematic defence of the nation supports serious environmentalism. He rightly highlights overpopulation within the UK:
Take the example of Great Britain. Our environment has been a preoccupation of political decision-making for a very long time. Landscape, agriculture and climate have been iconised in our art and literature and become foundational for our sentiments of national identity. Our planning laws, immigration laws and transport strategies until recently reflected this. However, we also know that our country is overcrowded, that its environment is being eroded by urban sprawl, commuter traffic and non-biodegradable waste, that its agriculture is under threat from European edicts and that — largely on account of the recent surge in immigration — our population is growing beyond our capacity to absorb the environmental costs.
Akin to Murray’s The War On The West Scruton concludes the collection with a defence of Western values, lest they be subsumed by the certainty of the Islamic population with its submission to a God. Theirs is a world of family honour, terror, assassinations and failed nations with no man ever accepted as worthy to rule.
Roger calls for a bullishness and renewal of confidence. No longer should we reward and highlight those who tear down and attack our institutions. Stop the hand-wringing and guilt trips and defend our cultural inheritance. Or else.
Alcohol created rapid kinship between Europeans and Christianity has a sense of irony he tells us. Christian cultures withheld casting the first stone, knowing the nuanced failings of humanity all too well. Meanwhile, competing cultures are quick to enforce mob rule and resort (sometimes) literally to the casting of stones.
Without this renewal we will be seen as weak and weakness will be punished and exploited. Does this warning narrative sound at all accurate in the summative assessment of Western demise?
