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    Re: A funeral for a glacier; an elegy for a coal-fired power station. Archived Message

    Posted by johnlilburne on August 20, 2019, 12:57 am, in reply to "Re: A funeral for a glacier; an elegy for a coal-fired power station."

    I think Hitchens has been - maybe still is - a so-called climate sceptic.

    Which is odd for someone who claims to be an adherent of Burkean conservatism, a pragmatic form of conservatism. You would expect someone like that to accept the overwhelming scientific consensus and advocate appropriate action, if nothing else, in order to follow the 'precautionary principle'.

    Burkean conservatives believe in society, in its organic nature and its continuity down the generations. They are neither reactionaries nor utopians. Cognisant of the imperfections of human nature, they advocate gradual pragmatic improvements to society not grand plans.

    Thatcherism isn't conservatism in this sense because it is willing to put the pursuit of individual self-interest first, even at the expense of breaking social bonds.

    Neoconservatism isn't conservatism in this sense. It is a madcap utopian project to reshape the world regardless of the destruction caused in the process.

    I think Hitchens is both a social and economic conservative in the sense that he dislikes many of the social changes that came in the wake of the 'permissive society' of the '60s. But he also dislikes the changes brought about under neoliberalism, the privatisations, the radical reduction in social housing, the near removal of the social safety net etc.

    Good when it comes to neoconservatism and neoliberalism, he seems myopic when it comes to climate change.

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