er, O.P., rightly calls the New Testament a message of absoluternhuman inequality-.rnAll truly great liberal thinkers have openly or secretly rejectedrndemocracy. On the other hand, the masses in liberalrndemocracies usually cannot distinguish between liberh’ andrnequalih’. Illiberal acts can be very democratic, in the sense ofrnbeing approved bv majorities, and freedoms can be resented (orrnprohibited) by majorities. A rightist using his brain cannot possiblyrnstand for democracy except in small villages where thernpeople know each other and are faced by very simple administrativernproblems. Even Rousseau admitted in his Contrat Socialrnthat democracy is feasible only among angels or, in anotherrnpassage, in tiny areas. Democracy is unacceptable to thernrightist, who realizes that the voters and those voted into powerrnmust understand history, geography, polities, law, sociology,rnmilitary affairs, and economics to have a moral right to be politicallyrnactive and decisive. (Think about the knowledge, skill,rnand experience a surgeon must have to assume responsibilityrnover the lives of hundreds of people, while mere amateur politicians,rndue to their “popularity,” wield power over the survival ofrnmillions.)rnDemocracy also poses a profound theological problem: It attemptsrnto eliminate rule (government), which is a curse resultingrnfrom Original Sin, and replace it with “self-government,”rnwhich does not exist. Democracy is rule not “of the people,”rnbut of a majority over a minority, earning Voltaire’s commentrnthat he preferred to live under the paw of a lion rather than underrnthe teeth of a thousand rats. Democracy has not the slightestrnrational or scientific foundation, which is why the laternCrane Brinton argued that it could only become in the longrnrun a purely fideistic secular religion. Since government is thernresult of Original Sin, one has to be very modest in all one’srnexpectations.rnThe return to democracy, a political form of antiquityrnwhich had failed completely and earned the ridicule andrncensure of the three philosophers who are the pillars of our civilizationrn—Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle —is one of the mostrnamazing features of the last 200 years. My American readersrnshould realize that democracy came to their country as a gradualrnalien influence. It is mentioned neither in the Declarationrnnor in the Constitution, nor do we find in these documents thernnoun “Republic.” Even Jefferson acknowledged (in the Declaration)rnthat a free people can have a monarch as a ruler.rnDemocracy, however, belongs to tlie left, and to arrive at ourrnproblem, which is how to choose between the terms “conservative”rnand “rightist,” we have to deal with two intermediary questions:rnthe distinction between right and left, and the very importantrnreligious background of our problem.rnIn Jonah 4:10, we read that in Nineveh the inhabitants werernso stupid that they could not distinguish between right and left.rnThis situation, however, we now find all over the world. Whatrnis “right”? Right is what is true, valid, and correct, regardless ofrnwhether it is old, traditional, and inherited, or contemporary, orrnplanned for the future. Russell Kirk wrote a brilliant book, directed,rnas the title says, against the Enemies of the PermanentrnThings. And these “permanent things” —ideas, convictions,rnhabits, customs, laws —are, if truly valid, what the “rightist”rnwants to preserve and defend. He will also not be overly eagerrnto effect changes just for the sake of change, as stabiliti,’ has arnpositive value (in this age of confusion, more so than ever).rn”Rightist” is a timeless expression. “Conservative” implies arnstop.rnW4iile the “rightist” stands for the “permanent things”—reasonablernfreedom, God’s Word, transcendent values, personality,rna socially mutable verticality—the “leftist” has practicallyrnthe opposite vision: anti-personalist collectivism, identitarianrnT “ihe return to democracy, a politicalrnform of antiquity which hadrnfailed completely and earned thernridicule and censure of the threernphilosophers who are the pillars ofrnour civilization-Socrates, Plato, andrnAristotle-is one of the most amazingrnfeatures of the last 200 years.rnuniformity and equalih’, horizontalit’, ethnicism, racism, materialism.rnSince 1989, leftism has largely abandoned state capitalismrn(socialism) and has been more lenient toward privaternenterprise, but it has also sped up its march toward Gomorrah.rnInternational socialism and national socialism are bothrnequally leftist, and he who reluctantly admits that they arernsomewhat alike, often stammers that “extremes meet”—v’hichrnis a fausse idee claire, a false but clear idea. Extremes obviouslyrnnever meet, or ice would be like boiling water, giants likerndwarfs, or scholars like illiterates. Of course, competitors haterneach other often more than adversaries; thus, one brewer mayrnhate another brewer more than he does tire prohibitionist, butrnhostile brewers might join against the prohibitionist, as the veryrnmodern Third Reich (which did not “turn back the clock”)rnjoined with the “progressive” Soviet Union against “reactionary”rnPoland. Indeed, National Socialism represented anrnextreme form of leftism, as Goebbels declared on December 6,rn1931, in Der Angriff: “We are the German left and despisernbourgeois nationalism.” In the Horst Wesnel Lied, their officialrnhyrrm, the National Socialists mourned their comrades shot byrnthe “Red Front and the Reactionaries,” and noble rightist ofiFicersrntried to slaughter the Beast, who boasted that he representedrn”German Democracy.” In 1926, Goebbels still proclaimedrnthat he was a “German Communist,” but later declared thatrnNational Socialism was the German counterpart to the FrenchrnRevolution. That late French revival of democracy was a sadisticrnsex orgy without parallel in world history in which pregnantrnwomen were squeezed in wine-and-fruit presses, mothers withrnchildren were slowly roasted in baker’s ovens, and naked fathersrnand daughters were tied together and drowned in “republicanrnweddings.” In Pont-de-Ce, a factory was erected in which thernskins of the murdered Vendeens were used to manufacture rid-rnJANUARY 1999/15rnrnrn