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It is a shame about conservatism. Yes, the old stick-in-the-muds were an impediment to progress. Yes, the old mossbacks were dull and predictable. Yes, their old knees jerked whenever they thought someone might be having fun. We despised them all.  Still, we miss the old fuddy-duddies. You could count on them. When something new presented itself, they wouldn't like it. They would resist it, not from any intellectual point of view, but just resist it the way a man resists a new pair of shoes or a dog resists a new collar. The new ones might be more fashionable, but that was reason enough to avoid them. Conservatives had out-moded ideas, but that was their charm. Many actually believed that Britney Spears was not as important to western history as Eleanor of Aquitaine!  But as a creed, conservatism has lost all its adherents, in America at least. As a philosophy, it has practically disappeared. As a political movement, it has dropped dead. Everyone likes new things now. The essential quality of conservatism is not a specific agenda. Neither to lower taxes or raise the flag, for example. It was merely a way of looking at things -- suspiciously; and it is a way of reacting to new proposals - dragging ones feet. Conservatives fight against new doctrines like they fight against sushi...not only is it appalling; it looks as though it might be dangerous too.

Bill Bonner is the founder and editor of the Daily Reckoning. He is also the author, with Addison Wiggin, of the NY Times and internatisonal best-seller: "Financial Reckoning Day: Surviving The Soft Depression of The 21st Century" (John Wiley & Sons).  See: 'The best investment book I have ever read...' http://www.agora-inc.com/reports/RCKN/FDR/ This essay was first published in The Daily   Reckoning (www.dailyreckoning.com ).

At least the big-spender, Bush, is serious about defending the nation from the “bad guys.” Big-spender, Kerry, as far as they can tell, might be a bad guy himself.

More and more, we see columnists, pundits, military strategists, politicians, and even friends of ours; refer to America's purported enemies as “the bad guys.” No one knows who the bad guys actually are or why they are so bad, but we all know the difference between a “bad guy” and a “good” one. We are at war with the “bad guys.” Ergo, flattering to deceive ourselves, we must be the “good guys.” 

According to the popular press, the bad guys may not be just a few malcontents and nut balls, but the entire Islamic population of the globe! The Muslim mind, say the neo-cons, is locked in the past...it mistreats women...it is anti-democratic...anti-progress...nihilist...and profoundly, irretrievably stuck in a death struggle with the good guys in the enlightened, free, open minded, fun-loving, capitalist West. It is a “clash of civilizations,” as Samuel Huntington put it.

The old time conservatives would be a little suspicious.

When a man flatters you, it is almost certain that he means to take your business, pick your pocket or sleep with your wife. When a man flatters himself, on the other hand, he might just as well put a revolver in his mouth and pull the trigger; for he has already lost all touch with reality.

A delightful little book has fallen into our hands. Amin Maalouf is the author. He gives us "The Crusades from the Arab Point of View." 
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The caliph Omar Ibn al-Khattab took Jerusalem from the Eastern Empire in February of 638, Maalouf tells us.  "That day, Omar made his entry into the city on his famous white camel while the Greek patriarch of the holy city came out to meet him. The caliph began by assuring him that the lives of the citizens and their property would be respected. He then asked to visit the city's sacred Christian sites. While they were in the church of Qyama, the Saint Sepulchre, the Moslem hour of prayer came around. Omar asked his host where he could spread his prayer rug and prostate himself. The patriarch invited him to do so right where he was, but the caliph replied: 'If I do it, the Muslims will proclaim the place sacred, saying, 'Omar prayed here.' Taking his rug, he went outside to pray."

"The population of the holy city was cut down," reported the Arab chronicler of the time, Ibn al-Athir. "The Franks (what the Arabs called the crusaders) massacred Muslims for a week. In the mosque al-Aqsa, they killed more than 70,000 people. The Jews were packed into their synagogue and the Franks burned them alive. They also destroyed holy monuments and the tomb of Abraham - peace be with him!"

"Christians were not spared either," adds Maalouf. "One of the first measures taken by the Franks was to expel from the Saint Sepulchre the Eastern priests - the Greeks, Georgians, Copts, Armenians, Syrians - who officiated over the old traditions and whom all previous conquerors had respected. But the dignitaries of the Christian community resisted. They refused to reveal where they had hidden the true cross upon which Christ died.” 

“For these men, religious devotion to the relics was doubled by a fierce patriotism. Were they not, in effect, the fellow citizens of Jesus himself? But the invaders were not impressed. Arresting the priests who guarded the cross, and putting them to torture in order to get their secrets, the crusaders managed to take from the Christians of the city their most precious relics."

Who were the good guys back then?

Men are neither “good” nor “bad,” the old conservatives would say...but subject to influence. 

Bill Bonner
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