/lit/ - Literature

Has anyone read Joseph de Maistre? I find much of his thinking sensible, especially on constitutions. I also find him to be a fruitcake (in the first dialogue of St. Petersburg Dialgoues, in his defense of execution by horrific torture, de Maistre notes the charge that inevitably innocent people will be torturted to death; his rebuttal is simply that even if they innocent of the charge, they are probably guilty of *something* anyway, and so their torture to death is no great crime). A important thinker, but I take him with a grain of salt. Although some have suggested he says certain things to be provocative (I find this in the translator's introduction), yet I am not sure I see substantiation of that. Joseph de Masitre's bloodthirsty conservativism only appears to clash with his unimpeachably moral life to the liberal, but from de Maistre's perspective I think they would be perfectly consistent.
I'd also like to ask if anyone has read The Benedict Option? I see it as very important for cultural conservatives. Rousseau said, "There is no doubt that people are in the long run what the government make out of them," a cancerous thought to be sure. A thought which unforunately has infested the right, who now use the term "conservative" in a meaningless way. The government should certainly support moral and religious order (I don't think there is any classical conservative who beleives "freedom of speech" protects pornography--the law of "freedom of speech", after all, came from British parliament, and was merely broadened in its scope to cover all citizens; no one in his right mind would think being an MP means you can show a pornographic video in parliament). Nonetheless, no classical conservative could believe that social engineering is the state's duty; that is what is foundational in our break with liberals over what education should be. Classical conservatives tend to support a liberal education, whereas liberals see public education primarily as a tool of social engineering. While we must support a moral state, the idea that a state can engineer is a moral society is simply incorrect; moral society is engineered by the family, the community and the Church.
Those in previous threads who have supplied titles for a classical conservative reading chart I greatly thank. I am working on it. Feel free to suggeest more titles from the Anglo-American, Continental and Slavophil schools. To the fellow who suggested Gottfried, I will heed your wishes and place him among the Continental school.

Putting together a reading list for traditionalists and classical conservatives if you care to contribute

>Lament for a Nation
>Realms of Being
>Folkways
>Reflections on the Revolution in France
>Ideas have Consequences
>Religion and the Rise of Western Culture
>David McCullough's "John Adams"
>Demons
>The Wasteland
>The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot
>Sexual Desire (Scruton)
>The Abolition of Man
>The Benedict Option
>The Abolition of Britain

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditionalist_conservatism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLGwlMSFwaA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx7K0ZtroCE

>Bauman observed that the general trait of individualistic modern man is to flow through his own life like a tourist, changing places, jobs, spouses, values and even sexual orientation and gender. Bauman said the modern tendency is to exclude oneself from traditional networks of support, while at the same time freeing oneself from the restrictions or requirements those networks impose.

>This trend towards such unbridled individualism has created societies in which “everything is unstable and changeable,” Messori noted, and referred to the “rapid change” not only in sexual behaviour but also in politics where legislators have given up on long term governance.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/pope-francis-chaplain-of-liquid-modernity/