I am interested in the intellectual landscape of contemporary British conservatism. Apparently, the party itself is in a chaos. But is there an intellectual halo around it? Are there any intellectual conservatives in Britain with a vision of the future?
Seems to me that the whole messy Brexit scene as well as our own misfit President's election are in the company of much of the rest of the world.
The movement is called far-right-wing which implies conservatives. But really has nothing to do with true conservatism (rare these days just as true progressivism is rare). The reasonable conservatives in this country eschew the populists as do the reasonable liberals. The intellectuals have the grounding to see the future's problems for the entire world.
Unlike those who have simplistic, racist takes of the world, most people realize that the simplistic (but frankly unworkable) effort of keeping "others" out will not delay the very great new challenges that confront all of us.
Both farthest right and farthest left are just plain afraid of migrants. These people, by happenstance, live in a part of the world that is at present less affected by global climate change. Migrants generally come from places where farming is no longer possible (e.g. Syria).
The effects are creeping into this country as flooding in the midwest and fires in the west already has some people thinking about moving north or vey far south.
Dear Patrice, thanks for your answer.
It does not seem to give me the clue, however, if there is an intellectual halo behind and around the British conservatives, and if so, what (how) they think.
Your intellectual halo is beyond me. sorry. Even though I am a liberal, I maintain that true conservatives include many intellectuals. Brexiteers and Trumpers are another story: no intellectuals among the whole silly bunch.
Jacob Rees-Mogg and Boris Johnson are among the intellectuals (or writing-reflecting contemplating area of life) in the Conservative Party.
And Roger Scruton from a general public intellectual side of course.
I will look up more, while the conservative re-formation is more apparent in the US currently, it's probably also coming to the UK and Europe with some time-lag and the particularities of Europe's essential Plurality.
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