Was Roger Scruton an idiot? I often see traditional conservatives derided as total ignoramuses because they don’t think in slogans, which is sad. But I’m surprised to see anyone say it about Roger Scruton, who authored penetrating books on Immanuel Kant, aesthetics, music, as well as more popular volumes on conservatism. But here it is.
This is an admission of low intelligence, from one of the most admired British conservatives of my lifetime.
Basically: “I hold my views on the basis of negative polarisation”. It’s like saying you oppose public ownership because marine le pen supports it. Daft. https://t.co/SVm1Nyxd9N
— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) October 19, 2026
Now, I think it is self-evident, even in his answer, that Roger Scruton is not describing a thoughtless process, but a strong reaction to what he perceived as an act of desecration by the rioters, one that set him thinking about what he loved in our society and civilization, and what he hoped to preserve in it. The desecration was not of the Eucharistic host or an icon; it was not aimed at a work of art. Instead, Scruton perceived it to be aimed at the ordinary lives of French citizens, going about their business. He perceived in the selfish joy of rioting that the protesters wanted to destroy the order and sense underneath the ordinary way of life, and it made him want to protect it.
Scruton’s 2009 essay for City Journal on Beauty and Desecration is informative here:
The haste and disorder of modern life, the alienating forms of modern architecture, the noise and spoliation of modern industry — these things have made the pure encounter with beauty a rarer, more fragile, and more unpredictable thing for us. Still, we all know what it is to find ourselves suddenly transported, by the things we see, from the ordinary world of our appetites to the illuminated sphere of contemplation. It happens often during childhood, though it is seldom interpreted then. It happens during adolescence, when it lends itself to our erotic longings. And it happens in a subdued way in adult life, secretly shaping our life projects, holding out to us an image of harmony that we pursue through holidays, through home-building, and through our private dreams.
Here is another example: it is a special occasion, when the family unites for a ceremonial dinner. You set the table with a clean embroidered cloth, arranging plates, glasses, bread in a basket, and some carafes of water and wine. You do this lovingly, delighting in the appearance, striving for an effect of cleanliness, simplicity, symmetry, and warmth. The table has become a symbol of homecoming, of the extended arms of the universal mother, inviting her children in. And all this abundance of meaning and good cheer is somehow contained in the appearance of the table. This, too, is an experience of beauty, one that we encounter, in some version or other, every day. We are needy creatures, and our greatest need is for home — the place where we are, where we find protection and love. We achieve this home through representations of our own belonging, not alone but in conjunction with others. All our attempts to make our surroundings look right — through decorating, arranging, creating — are attempts to extend a welcome to ourselves and to those whom we love.
Scruton says that conservatism is the search for the reasons behind things which do not justify themselves as reasons. That is, a properly ordered man loves beauty, order, truth, goodness even if he cannot immediately explain them. The impulse to desecrate is from our innate human desire to escape the judgment of the sacred. “In the presence of sacred things, our lives are judged, and to escape that judgment, we destroy the thing that seems to accuse us.” A man can feel accused by the sacred things, the lowness of his passions, or the condition of his life. The only true solution is repentance, the acceptance of grace and mercy, overflowing in piety. But, being what he is, man often seeks relief from the accusation by destroying the sacred image in the world — trying to fool himself that “if the sky didn’t fall” upon his action, there is no judgment to fear.
Scruton’s defense was of ordinary life — even bourgeois life. Yes, it is a form of negative polarization. Conservatism of his type is a reaction against desecration and desacralization.