An excerpt from an interview Rod Dreher (Crunchy Cons) conducted with Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food) for that latte-sipping, arugula-chomping publication The American Conservative:
DREHER: What about human society as an organism? Many people think of Wendell Berry as a man of the Left because he criticizes humankind’s unnatural exploitative relationship to agriculture and the environment, but Berry has argued on similar grounds against the individualist sexual ethic pervasive in contemporary culture. Is he on to something?
POLLAN: Berry’s on to a lot of things. He’s a very wise man. Is he Right or Left? Those categories don’t fit him. He is a fierce critic of capitalism because he sees it destroying community, destroying traditional sexual relationships, destroying family. I agree with a lot of that, but not all.
This is a blind spot in a lot of contemporary conservatism—not understanding that while capitalism can be a very constructive force, it can also be very destructive of things that conservatives value.
DREHER: It’s also a blind spot of contemporary liberalism to fail to see how pursuing a sort of autonomous individualism when it comes to social forms undermines a community in the same way that capitalism does.
POLLAN: That’s right. The Left can be blind to that possibility also.
AmCon’s cover this month promotes “the case for culinary conservatism,” complete with wine and cheese imagery. While there’s plenty to discuss there — what does it mean to be a conservative foodie? — I was struck by the invocation of Wendell Berry. I had the general displeasure of reading some of the man’s works in a class called the Contested American Countryside. Berry is only difficult to label politically because he doesn’t, ultimately, care about economics. He cares about traditionalism. Which for him depends stringently on gender roles and a glorification of rural life and values, despite however many comments he’s made over the years that make back-to-the-earth leftie types nod their heads in approval. If the paleoconservatives want him, I say let them have him.
The worst thing about reading Rod Dreher or any of the paleo-conservatives (well not the worst thing, but it annoys me), is that I find myself nodding along with some of their more reasonable positions – usually food related, like you mention – and forget that in a lot of ways, they are a bunch of reprehensible ass-clowns.
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