On a Coffee Cup . . .

Jonah Goldberg of NRO did an interview with Starbucks, apropos of a quote of his being printed one one of their coffee cups (by the way, he is the only conservative among dozens of liberals quoted). In the interview he says:

Also, I think conservatives let their admirable attraction to ideas distract them from other sources of change. Many conservatives like to blame all of our modern ills on those horrible ideas that escaped German laboratories at the beginning of the 20th century and then mutated in French cafés. And while I think nihilism, moral relativism, existentialism, etc. have had serious consequences for society, it's impossible to deny that the automobile, birth control pill and the telephone have done more to unsettle traditional arrangements than anything Heidegger ever wrote or said. The problem is that it's easy to argue with Heidegger (or his writing); it's really hard to argue with a Buick.

I guess, then, that I am not a conservative. Jonah seems to be putting the emphasis in conservatism on conserving long-standing traditions or ways of life. And since these technological developments undermine these traditions, they are the real threat to conservatism.

What's really interesting about this is that Heidegger himself was very concerned about preserving traditions, because of his belief that modern liberal democracy and market-based economies were a major culprit in people living inauthentically. This is one of the main arguments of "Being and Time."

The problem I have with Heidegger and the existentialists and the postmoderns and almost all of twentieth century literature, art, music and high culture generally is not that it undermines tradition, but that it is dead. It goes nowhere; it leads to nothing; it is nihilistic and pessimistic. It is a sign of a civilization that is deeply unhealthy and has no idea how to move forward. For all that Nietzsche is blamed for, his great contribution was demanding that philosophy embrace health. Does Heidegger's approach lead to health, or just to stoicism in the face of a meaningless universe and unavoidable death?

I'm not concerned about tradition; I'm concerned about health.