I learned this past week of the passing of one of my favorite political writers, Joseph Sobran. I read everything he wrote for National Review all during the 1980’s; he was instrumental in educating me about Conservatism. I was so indoctrinated in Marxism and the Leftist cultural mindset that it took about the whole decade to clear my head of it.
He had written a piece that was so clear and succinct about what conservatism was that it became a large part of my foundation of political thought. I wrote him a few years ago asking if he had a copy of it he could forward to me, and he wrote back it was the property of National Review. I’m hoping with Sobran’s passing that his collected works get published.
He was one of the finest political writers ever; a joy to read. Some just put together words in a way that not only are the ideas clear, but the syntax and structure are just lovely.
Here’s a line from “Pensees”, the piece that had such an impact on me.
“There are natural limits to our sympathies, limits liberalism can only condemn, never respect. And there is no reason to credit its attitude with ‘idealism’. A robin that took worms to every nest in the forest would not be an ideal robin; it would only be an odd bird.”
More:
"Nothing is easier than to imagine some notionally ‘ideal’ state. But we give too much credit to this debased kind of imagination, which is so ruthless when it takes itself seriously. To appreciate, on the other hand, is t imagine the real, to discover use, value, beauty, order, purpose in what already exists; and this is the kind of imagination most appropriate to creatures, who shouldn’t confuse themselves with the Creator.
The highest form of appreciation is worship. I don’t insist that there is a correlation between formal religion and conservatism. But there is an attitude prior to any creed, which many make a healthy-minded unbeliever regretful that he has nobody to thank for all the goodness and beauty in his life that he has done nothing to deserve. One might almost say that the crucial thing about a man is not whether he believes in God, but how he imagines God: as infinitely good and adorable, or merely as an authoritarian obstacle to human desire? The opposite of piety is not unbelief, but crassness."
I had rejected Christianity while in my 20’s, opting for all the fluffy headed new ageism. My evolution from Marxism to Conservatism lead to my returning to Christianity. That took longer, about 15 years until I returned to the Faith and the Church and got baptized. Looking back it’s related to the idea Sobran noted about the correlation between religion and conservatism.
Now comes the sad part of the story. William F Buckley fired Sobran in the late 1980’s because it became apparent he was an anti-Semite. The National Review issue right after Sobran’s firing was completely written by Buckley, “In Search of Anti-Semitism”. I read most of it then, and didn’t get much of it, partly because Buckley’s intellectual prowess so outstrips mine, and I was still in the process of intellectual and spiritual transformation.
After the firing and the whole NR issue being written by Buckley, Sobran’s career was pretty much destroyed. He associated more with lesser intellects, and anti-Semitic organizations, he lost his audience, and his health declined. He died alone and broke. He could have changed his thinking, gone to Buckley for help and asked for forgiveness, but was intransigent in his views.
I am saddened that he lost his way. This was a brilliant mind that had such a powerful influence on my political thinking, and I pray that he’ll be remembered for that brilliance and not for the ideas that lead to his personal and professional destruction.
RIP
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