Quodlibet
Moderate Disguises
by S. M. Hutchens
When progressivism and conservatism are treated as habits of mind or purely philosophical viewpoints, they (not unlike Stoicism and Epicureanism) may be freely abstracted from life and in an abstract state treated dialectically as complementary modalities. But as soon as a historical-existential (i.e., non-abstract) component is introduced, those who use the terms become responsible for defining them in accordance with the reality of things.
I have noticed that people who call themselves moderates typically wish to level a skewed moral playing field (one in which, for example, progressives privilege sodomy and want the Ten Commandments removed from public view) by equalizing conservatism and progressivism, treating the latter in accordance with its more abstract form as forward-looking open-mindedness, but burdening conservatism with its more vicious, unjustly repressive historical expressions, in line with the polemics necessary to establish and defend modern liberalism. (I won't blame Norman Podhoretz for this observation, but derived it from pondering his Why Are Jews Liberals?) This kind of "moderate" is in fact, in accord with the reality of his associations, a partisan—thinly but ostentatiously clad in the mantle of objectivity.
S. M. Hutchens is a senior editor and longtime writer for Touchstone.
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more on history from the online archives
31.1—January/February 2018
on Ragnarök, an Extreme Weather Event & the Paths to Conversion by Timothy J. Burbery
15.6—July/August 2002
Things Hidden Since the Beginning of the World
The Shape of Divine Providence & Human History by James Hitchcock
14.6—July/August 2001
The Transformed Relics of the Fall
on the Fulfillment of History in Christ by Patrick Henry Reardon
more from the online archives
14.6—July/August 2001
The Transformed Relics of the Fall
on the Fulfillment of History in Christ by Patrick Henry Reardon
35.6—Nov/Dec 2022
on the Divine Promise Fulfilled by the Child of Bethlehem by James M. Kushiner
31.6—November/December 2018
The Slow Vindication of Leon Podles by S. M. Hutchens
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
