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Crunchy Dragoons?

That’s part of the problem with what has been written on the blog (I haven’t read the book). Whatever is good, true, and noble is, by their definition, “crunchy.” By that token, whoever recognizes the importance of transcendence is dragooned as a “crunchy”; if they resist, they are mourned as a hapless victim of consumerism […]

That’s part of the problem with what has been written on the blog (I haven’t read the book). Whatever is good, true, and noble is, by their definition, “crunchy.” By that token, whoever recognizes the importance of transcendence is dragooned as a “crunchy”; if they resist, they are mourned as a hapless victim of consumerism or denounced as a hypocrite. ~Email posted at Crunchy Cons

When K.J. Lopez posted this email, she must have thought it was making an interesting point. I suppose it is interesting that there is a persistent misunderstanding at work in this “discussion” that leads readers to conclude what this one did. The discussion has gone something like this:

Crunchy Blogger: Transcendent realities of Beauty, Truth and the Good require us to live in ways that do not egregiously violate them, and require instead a life of virtue. As conservatives, we all theoretically subscribe to living a virtuous life and believe in the importance of transcendent Truth and pursuing the Good, but some of us seem to be better at the ‘theoretically’ part than actually living out these convictions. Here are my observations on how modern Americans are living that seem to be seriously out of alignment with those goods, and these are my alternatives…

Anti-Crunchy Blogger 1: You’re trying to make politics into a religion! The politics of transcendence is scary and fascist! Don’t be like a fascist! I believe in a partial philosophy of life. You know, the kind that doesn’t require anything from you.

Anti-Crunchy Blogger 2: You’re trying to tell me how to live! I like transcendence, but please don’t pester me about details.

Anti-Crunchy Blogger 3: I’d be willing to entertain ideas about how transcendence applies to my life, but obviously you all are just talking about a “mere” sensibility and not real ideas. I don’t even like granola.

John Podhoretz: [Irrelevant obnoxious remark goes here.]

Anti-Crunchy Emailer: I care deeply about transcendence. Just don’t expect me to examine my life in the slightest, and stop being so mean!

Anti-Crunchy Columnist: There’s room enough for all you pathetic, tradition-constructing crunchies at my table anytime. (Just so long as you acknowledge that your way of life is hopelessly outmoded and fake.)

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