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It is often forgotten that the conservative revolution – or reaction – of yesterday, today and always, cannot be understood, supported or implemented unless it is accompanied by a revolution – or reaction – of virtues. Political virtues, social virtues, individual virtues and economic virtues.
The dialectics of parties in democratic systems can lead us to believe that simply winning elections and implementing a given legislative plan is the real goal of patriotic or conservative movements.
And, of course, achieving power and from power passing laws that promote the common good, individual liberty, economic prosperity for all, and justice are the proper goals of political parties. But it is not enough if we really want to improve our nations, from the small local communities; knowing that the smallest and most important local community is the family, made up of a man and a woman.
And among all the virtues that have shaped the Christian ethic for centuries in Europe, there are some that have their own manifestations in the private sphere, and others that have a special expression in the public sphere.
Of the latter, we could cite, for example, sincerity; a virtue that is particularly damaged or at least not highly valued in the system of parties and pluralist competition in the electoral market.
If we were to ask our neighbours, relatives, schoolmates or workmates whether they think politicians are sincere, I have no doubt that practically all of them would say that all politicians lie, and many of those polled would even reply that insincerity is, in fact, a requirement of political activity. Politicians have for decades deceived their voters, promised and failed to deliver. In fact, the electoral system itself encourages unscrupulous people to promise voters non-existent paradises, magical laws and life-changing decisions immediately, just to get their vote. They know that the electoral body then forgets the promises, forgives the lies and has become accustomed to the fraud of politicians, without demanding clear accountability.
Unfortunately, honesty is a virtue in short supply. We live in party democracies (and especially in recent years, already inundated by woke thinking and emotional ethics) in a perpetual artificii and life is for many nothing but a comedy in which politicians play their part as consummate actors. Hence the triumph of social networks – especially image-based ones like instagram or tik tok – which are often used as the triumph of the mask and imposture.
The sincere man is the one who shows himself as he is. There is nothing more vile than deceit and lies. And when a whole nation is deceived and lied to, vice reaches its highest expression. In Spain, Pedro Sánchez, the Socialist Prime Minister, is the most obvious example of this vicious way of life. He promised not to make pacts with communists and separatists, and he did; he promised not to pass an amnesty law for separatist coup plotters in Catalonia because it was unconstitutional, and he passedit; he promised not to pardon corrupt politicians, and he did. All to stay in power.
The brutal propaganda machine that post-modern states have become, with totally dependent public and private media and economic and financial ‘elites’ who own the media, dependent on public power for their business, covers up and justifies all the deceptions.
Also the popular parties in Europe have become propaganda and political swindle machines. In the election campaign they all promised to be defenders of farmers and ranchers, but not even a month had passed and they all supported Von der Leyen, for his re-election as president of the European Commission, after a speech where he made it clear that he would not give in on anything in the achievement of the so-called climate objectives, even if it meant imposing new sacrifices on the European agricultural sector. That is our conservative reaction. That of customs and virtues.