“[I support an] associationist communitarianism, which combines left egalitarianism with conservatism about cultural and ethical values. It is pro-high culture and pro-excellence in education, but wants these things to be democratically available. Ethically, it is pro-family but by no means wishes to reverse the gains of female equality and the tolerance of homosexuality—the point is rather that stable marriage is the best way for most people. It is also critical of the technologization of medicine and the increasingly calculative approach to the lives of the old; it takes for granted that all decent people are opposed to voluntary euthanasia….[Also, d]emocracy can only be sustained when there is a parallel, non-democratic concern with paideia–the formation of good character—which links talent to virtue and both to positions of appropriate social influence. Without the extra-democratic inculcation of character, democracy cannot enter into the debate about the good, which is the only legitimate and non-corrupt debate that can be held.”

Sign me up as a Milbankian.

http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2010/03/17/orthodox-paradox-an-interview-with-john-milbank/

Blond and Red Toryies are taken up near the end of the interview.

Cameron however is a different story. Peter Hitchens has written pretty accurately on him when he claims he is pretty much a Blue Labour candidate and his victory means a solidification of many of the New Labour ideals. He seems intent on continuing the current destruction of British sovereignty with the unwanted, on the part of the British public path of EU integration. He pretended to want a referendum on the farcical Lisbon treaty but he knew it would be already passed by the time he won and seems to have no plans to even stall further integration let alone reverse the current amount.

Britain does not have our heritage of States rights and autonomous local government so perhaps this is an unfair question or perhaps the diagrams at the end of the report deal with the various scales of public interaction. Or, perhaps National Dominance is a fait accompli. However, with a British percentage of public expenditures @ upwards of 55% of GDP and our own @ 44% of GDP (not including debt!) we must deal with the appetite issue sooner rather than later. Playing catch-up ball with already spent “future” savings is particularly open to Kafkaesque flights of fancy.

Are we to simply transfer the operation of public services…in their current form and general distribution from inefficient public sectors to the proposed “Civic companies”, thus realizing a productivity increase, quality improvement and perhaps savings and a more self-possessed public or are we to begin the discussion of our yearnings for utopian levels of care that fling us wholly into the realm of totalitarian solutions, regardless of whether they are privately or publicly owned and operated?

Conservatism, in my mind, must speak clearly about wants and appetites and set limits to the ability of a polity to satisfy excessive wants. I suppose I should be happy that public expenditures are only half of GDP (without debt) but I don’t care if the organization providing the services is publicly or privately owned, that seems an inordinate amount of money spent on government and with Civic companies ,quite possibly only a masking of the more serious issue: Excessive Appetite For Services. We aint an obese nation for lack of want.

That said, intriguing…. and I look forward to the fruits of his interaction on this side of the pond

“Freedom is both supported and undermined by wealth but only associative democracy can maintain the balance.”

“Phillip Blond’s Visit to America

British Red Tory philosopher and Res Publica think tank director Phillip Blond is set to come to the United States in March 2010 at the invitation of the American traditionalist blog, Front Porch Republic. Blond is set to first lecture and attend a round table discussion at Georgetown University’s Tocqueville Forum, where he will be introduced by the Forum’s Dr. Patrick Deneen, a Front Porch Republic contributor. The round table discussion will include comments from traditionalist journalists Ross Douthat of the New York Times and Daniel McCarthy of The American Conservative, as well as the Templeton Foundation’s Rod Dreher, and others. Deneen will moderate the round table.[36]

From the Georgetown event Blond is set to attend another event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This will be the first formal event in the United States between Blond, a British traditionalist who is an advisor to British MP David Cameron, and the leading public figures of the growing American “neo-traditionalist” movement.”

I would encourage all readers of FPR to read the entire entry and edit further additions to the piece.

I’m sure David Cameron’s not all he’s cracked up to be, but it seems well past time that some of these ideas get tried. If it can’t be here in the US, then let it be Britain. Good luck to the Tories!

I look forward to the discussion on this site afterwards.