Wolfe's politics

Jim Jordan · 30 Jun 1998, 16:58 · from urth-v0015.mbox · original

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From: Jim Jordan <jbjordan at gnt.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) Wolfe's politics
Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 16:58:03
Message-ID: <urth-v0015-0046 at digest.urth.net>
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>It's hard for me to imagine Wolfe as entirely "anti-PC"; after all, I
>think that 5HC is essentially a critique of colonialism.
>
>I suspect that Wolfe, like many people doesn't necessarily consider
>his politics as being reducible to a party affiliation or set of
>beliefs.=20
>
>D

	Speaking as a long-time conservative:

	1. Wolfe's conservationism (environmentalism) is wholly in keeping with
traditional conservatism, which is not committed to a total laissez-faire
approach to all matters. He's right in line with men like Russell Kirk and
Francis Schaeffer.
	2. The same holds true of his anti-colonialism. G. K. Chesterton was one
of many Catholic and non-establishment Protestant evangelicals who
advocated a "little England" and opposed imperialism on moral grounds. It
goes back to Edmund Burke's attacks on how the British abused the Indians
in India.
	3. It is safe to say that Wolfe started out as a generic Catholic
conservative, but as a mature thinker, has become too broad for any kind of
typecasting. But his general perspective is going to be pro-Christian,
pro-Bible, and thus pretty conservative as compared with modern notions.
	4. He is fully capable of sympathizing with anti-establishment movements,
as we see in "Hour of Trial." But notice that while Gene Wolfe marches with
the radicals, he does so praying the Lord's Prayer!
	5. The whole PC movement is so incredibly bigoted and anti-intellectual
that it is hard to see why anyone, conservative or liberal, would credit it!
	6. But the conclusion of the whole matter is this: Wolfe has said in
interviews that he is a practicing Roman Catholic, "but you may not
understand what that means." The same is true of being a conservative. A
great many people who have not read Christian and conservative (not the
same thing, of course) literature have very odd notions about what such
people actually believe and espouse.

Just some food for thought.

Jim Jordan


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