The Misleading Myth of the Conservative Utopia

May 25, 2010

Great essay by J.C. Hallman on Ayn Rand, Rand Paul, Glenn Beck, and why conservative utopias aren’t really utopias at all:

It’s fashionable at the moment to conflate Glenn Beck, the Tea Party movement, and, now, Rand Paul.  What’s not been discussed so far is the wide range of open religious sentiment apparent in all of these.  Ayn Rand was a famous atheist.  Glenn Beck is a curious and dangerous mélange of talking head and televangelist.  And the Tea Party wants to regard the Constitution as sacred document.

There’s a reason they’re all in bed together.

In In Utopia I make the argument that extreme conservative utopias (everything from Theodore Hertzka’s Freeland to a range of twentieth century novels suggesting that the path to peace runs through holocaust) are not really utopias at all.  Rather, they are reconciliations to an imperfect world.  These “utopias” reject the idea that government or planning of any kind can make the world a better place.  Much better is a policy of not planning, small government, the invisible arm of the market, social Darwinism as nature’s intent, and so forth.  In short, no plan is a better plan.

Read the whole thing here.