Some Reason for Cheerfulness: Rumination on Conservative Thoughts and Action

From the Academy

The fifties were years when men woke to the need for defending what T.S. Eliot called “the permanent things.” True, a decade after national review commenced publication with the intent of flogging the naked follies of the time, we still find ourselves under the giddy domination of Dinos: “Whirl is king, having overthrown Zeus.” Yet more and more voices assert the legitimacy of Zeus; and, better than one might have expected, the legitimists have held their ground against the lust for innovation. To quote Eliot again, there are no lost causes, because there are no gained causes.

RK

About the Author

Russell Kirk

Featured Tags

From the Academy

The fifties were years when men woke to the need for defending what T.S. Eliot called “the permanent things.” True, a decade after national review commenced publication with the intent of flogging the naked follies of the time, we still find ourselves under the giddy domination of Dinos: “Whirl is king, having overthrown Zeus.” Yet more and more voices assert the legitimacy of Zeus; and, better than one might have expected, the legitimists have held their ground against the lust for innovation. To quote Eliot again, there are no lost causes, because there are no gained causes.