Roger Scruton

[tbieter]

The other day I finished reading Scruton's The Meaning of Conservatism. I'm now reading his book The Soul of The World and I've also bought two other books by Scruton. As you can see from his Amazon page, he has wide interests and is a prolific writer.
http://www.amazon.com/Roger%20Scruton/e ... 1457577225

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=14071&p=248743#p248743

[uwot]

Roger Scruton's problem is that he just doesn't like the modern world. He doesn't like contemporary music, he doesn't like contemporary art, he doesn't like contemporary architecture and he doesn't like contemporary social mores. Basically, he's a petty minded, reactionary twerp. All of which is entirely his own business and it shouldn't upset anyone, if he wants to write his own dreary operas.
What is ugly and cynical about this blithering half-wit is, respectively, his concept of 'endarkening'*, brain-washing, to you and me, and the fact that he is quite happy to form a pact with the Thatcher/Reaganite free market sociopaths to achieve it.

*Here's Wikipedia on the topic. "Scruton considers that religion plays a basic function in "endarkening" human minds. "Endarkenment" is Scruton's way of describing the process of socialization through which certain behaviours and choices are closed off and forbidden to the subject, which he considers to be necessary in order to curb socially damaging impulses and behaviours."

[Dalek Prime]

Roger Scrotum? Never heard of him. Just saying...

[FlashDangerpants]

He's also well known for a (IMO) very strange argument he presented in favour of fox hunting. It was based on a long forgotten Roman version of the concept of Piety (IIRC). It wasn't terribly convincing, but I can't really remember any details.

[tbieter]

The other day I finished reading Scruton's The Meaning of Conservatism. I'm now reading his book The Soul of The World and I've also bought two other books by Scruton. As you can see from his Amazon page, he has wide interests and is a prolific writer.
http://www.amazon.com/Roger%20Scruton/e ... 1457577225

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=14071&p=248743#p248743

This morning I finished reading Scruton's The Soul of the World.
http://www.amazon.com/Soul-World-Roger- ... +the+world
On the last page he repeated a key notion that jolted this old broken down lawyer: after death "we must account for our faults."

[tbieter]

After finishing The Soul of the World this morning, I started reading Fools, Frauds, and Firebrands - Thinkers of the New Left.

http://www.amazon.com/Fools-Frauds-Fire ... er+scruton

Today, April 7, 2016, I finished reading Fools, Frauds, and Firebrands.

[uwot]

After finishing The Soul of the World this morning, I started reading Fools, Frauds, and Firebrands - Thinkers of the New Left.

I'm not clear what your purpose is in listing books you have read. Should we congratulate you for your ability to read? Might you demonstrate that you can also think, perhaps by critiquing the material that clearly draws you? I'm curious which of the three f'ers I qualify as.

[marjoram_blues]

After finishing The Soul of the World this morning, I started reading Fools, Frauds, and Firebrands - Thinkers of the New Left.

I'm not clear what your purpose is in listing books you have read. Should we congratulate you for your ability to read? Might you demonstrate that you can also think, perhaps by critiquing the material that clearly draws you? I'm curious which of the three f'ers I qualify as.

Glad you're still on the case, uwot. Earlier you expressed my distaste of Scruton so eloquently and substantially. Excellent balance,; definitely required in a thread designed to keep his name in lights. And damn, every response achieves this...

[Obvious Leo]

Roger Scruton? Is he still alive? If nobody's got the balls to stick a knife into his dark heart then somebody should at least shove a fist into his incessant gob. The mental image of Scruton on his hands and knees is a pleasant one which could be even further enhanced if he were picking his bicuspids out of his turds.

In case you're wondering, I don't have a very high opinion of the man.

[tbieter]

Roger Scruton? Is he still alive? If nobody's got the balls to stick a knife into his dark heart then somebody should at least shove a fist into his incessant gob. The mental image of Scruton on his hands and knees is a pleasant one which could be even further enhanced if he were picking his bicuspids out of his turds.

In case you're wondering, I don't have a very high opinion of the man.

Have you read any of his writings? If so, which ones?

[tbieter]

Roger Scruton's problem is that he just doesn't like the modern world. He doesn't like contemporary music, he doesn't like contemporary art, he doesn't like contemporary architecture and he doesn't like contemporary social mores. Basically, he's a petty minded, reactionary twerp. All of which is entirely his own business and it shouldn't upset anyone, if he wants to write his own dreary operas.
What is ugly and cynical about this blithering half-wit is, respectively, his concept of 'endarkening'*, brain-washing, to you and me, and the fact that he is quite happy to form a pact with the Thatcher/Reaganite free market sociopaths to achieve it.

*Here's Wikipedia on the topic. "Scruton considers that religion plays a basic function in "endarkening" human minds. "Endarkenment" is Scruton's way of describing the process of socialization through which certain behaviours and choices are closed off and forbidden to the subject, which he considers to be necessary in order to curb socially damaging impulses and behaviours."

Have you read any of his books or articles? If so, which ones?

[tbieter]

After finishing The Soul of the World this morning, I started reading Fools, Frauds, and Firebrands - Thinkers of the New Left.

I'm not clear what your purpose is in listing books you have read. Should we congratulate you for your ability to read? Might you demonstrate that you can also think, perhaps by critiquing the material that clearly draws you? I'm curious which of the three f'ers I qualify as.

I'm reading Scruton to compare his conservatism against the conservatism of Russell Kirk, author of the classic The Conservative Mind.

Thus far, I think I have found one significant difference between the two authors. Scruton has written in his The Meaning of Conservatism that a secular society can be a conservative society. Kirk (and Christopher Dawson, Josef Pieper, and T.S. Eliot ) hold that a shared religion is a necessary foundation for any civilized society.

The issue is relevant and significant in view of the fact of increasing secularization of society.

[tbieter]

Roger Scruton? Is he still alive? If nobody's got the balls to stick a knife into his dark heart then somebody should at least shove a fist into his incessant gob. The mental image of Scruton on his hands and knees is a pleasant one which could be even further enhanced if he were picking his bicuspids out of his turds.

In case you're wondering, I don't have a very high opinion of the man.

Is your opinion based on any knowledge derived from considering his arguments?

[Obvious Leo]

Is your opinion based on any knowledge derived from considering his arguments?

Yes. Since I've never personally met the man my opinion is entirely based on his published writings, in which he projects himself as both an elitist and a bigot who mistakes rationalising for reasoning. However he seems to be mostly a media slut who tailors his views towards a specific market within the British zeitgeist and his influence on the public debate in my country is negligible. Therefore I don't particularly give a fuck what he thinks.

[uwot]

Have you read any of his books or articles? If so, which ones?

I've not read any of Scruton's books, but as Obvious Leo suggests, he is a fairly public figure, in the UK at least; he writes for the press and appears on the telly and radio, so his views are widely known and discussed.
The differences you discern between Scruton and Kirk, I suggest, are partly due to geography and history. Kirk was writing in the US, a generation before Scruton and, as we in the UK have discovered, it is entirely possible for conservatism to survive in secular states. As I said though, there are different types of conservative; broadly the aesthetic, religious and economic. The problem is the economic conservatives. They undetstand that money is debt and have stitched up the populations, particularly of the UK and US, so that people whose grandparents haven't been born yet, will spend a significant proportion of their working life, just paying for the debt we owe to bankers and financiers. They have done this with the support of the other kind of conservatives by playing on their fears that the left intends to take away their right to enjoy classical music, or worship whatever god they choose. Tragically, the left has been poor at assuring such people that their own enjoyment or belief is nobody else's business, so long as they respect other people's tastes.