Contradictions

Last week Patrick Deenan at Front Porch Republic threw out a challenge for the folks at Postmodern Conservative to debate the Front Porchers on their competing conservative views. The debate has circulated through the corner of the blogosphere that I frequent. I’m not going to post all the links here but there is some good stuff at The League of Ordinary Gentlemen, PoMoCon and in the comments of Patrick’s original post. There’s also a post by myself available here.

Over the weekend James Poulos, of Postmodern Conservative, asked a series of questions. One was by way of anecdote, which I really identified with:

My family likes making the effort to find and activate green alternatives for contemporary living. But we also like the rewards and benefits of making other kinds of efforts, which make a ‘full blown’ green way of life impracticable. We find contemporary life to be, on the whole, good; but we find much of it rotten. We hate much of what is on TV, yet we own a TV (basic cable) and watch it from time to time. We like country life, but all we can manage at the moment is a small rented cottage. We really wouldn’t want to live full-time at that cottage right now at all. But we love staying there at stretches. Although our enjoyment of the country is, by our lights, in no way superficial, we certainly regret not being able to draw indefinitely the sorts of goods associated with extended country living. We also regret not living on a tropical island, though we don’t really want to live on one.

This statement adequately sums up where I am on some of the things that Front Porch advocates. I love the rural. I love nature. I love spending time in both. I try hard to be more ‘green’ but I also would be lying if I said I didn’t still love my TV and I usually use a plastic water bottle at the gym and then throw it away.

Poulos hits on the contradictions we all must live with. As much as I like the FPR attitude and their affinity for many of the things that excite me (backyard gardens, small towns and all that they imply) I find myself sympathizing with a Postmodern Conservative viewpoint that seems to be more realistic.  Abraham Lincoln said, “We cannot escape history. We will be remembered in spite of ourselves.” I think there’s a lesson there in that we also cannot escape the future and progress, both good and bad.  It is quite near impossible to find a place so remote that airplanes do not fly overhead. Yet we can still enjoy the peace that comes in the moments between.

More thoughts ahead…