Should a conservative blog?

Posted by Matt

Yale conservatives are a strange brood. Debates amongst us are as likely to be about the merits of monarchy as they are about the upcoming elections, and a discussion about the Middle Ages is as welcome as one touching on yesterday’s news. But perhaps the most striking thing that I noticed when I arrived on campus in the fall is that Yale conservatives, in defiance of the egalitarian yet individualistic influences of modern America, recognize the importance of aesthetics, and adjust much of their lives accordingly.

If only to preserve consistency with our often ancient ideas, the latest fashion in such circles hasn’t changed in years – among the gentlemen, bowties and tweed jackets are encouraged. Ask us about rap music, a new television show, or weblogs, and you might well be told that we’ve never heard of such newfangled oddities. Fail to hold a door open for a lady? Fear our wrath.

To quote a New Haven local who once had the good fortune to be confronted with a conservative gentleman clad in a three piece suit, a bowtie, and a gold-chained pocket watch complete with pipe, “are you serious?!”

Yes. Yes we are.

But these niceties we hold dear, while gloriously chivalric and ultimately harmless, are nevertheless dishonest. As conservatives, we recognize the limits that our times and our location place on us. We can no more avoid the awful din of popular culture than could a knight of old avoid chivalry. But our white lies serve a lofty purpose in reminding us of the ideals we seek to uphold and helping us to keep something sacred in times that demand the breakdown of all barriers. Thus the conservative can take neither his quaint mannerisms nor the environment in which he finds himself lightly.

Blogs, then, and the internet as a whole, seem to put the conservative in a sort of conundrum. How shall we proceed? Neither abandoning his cherished heritage nor bowing to modern pressures, the modern day conservative must follow a tradition, and deal with the often hollow internet culture as conservatives have long dealt with such cultural problems: sigh, think, and write.