This is part two of my interview with the Culinary Libertarian. Our interview went over, and we just kept talking, kinda freestyle without any subject in particular to get to. So it's that kind of fun. (Hense the dvd-esc title.) We talk about benefit of the doubt, conservatism, family and more. There's an excerpt below. Get the whole thing, along with my eletter, here.
Dann: . . . There's more than two sides. But to keep the discussion simple, there's side A and side B, and there's propaganda on both sides A and B. If you think your side is free of propaganda and if you think your side of history is all sunshine and roses, then you're the problem, not the history. . . . It's hard to emotionally and mentally get yourself around the idea that my side did bad things and I accept that. That's a very difficult position to be in.
Penjammin: And that brings up a point about conservatism, too. (Yeah, I defend conservatism but probably not of a kind that everybody agrees with.) In principle, to me, [conservatism] is cultivating the inherited good. And I think, by definition, that has to be unobjectionable. Now, if that's actually what conservatives are doing, that's a completely different question. Often they're not. Often they're just, you know, driving liberal agenda by the speed limit as they say. But conservatism proper, I think, is cultivating the inherited good. But part of that process is discerning what you've inherited; what is good, what's the baby [and] what's the bathwater. And slavery… that inherited cultural institution needed to go. That's great, but other things maybe need to stay and you cultivate that. So with that sense of it, I think you're exactly right. Where are you coming from (your people, your tribe, whatever you identify with)? What's inherited in there? What have you received? And then Where is it good? Where is it bad?” That's the introspective self-evaluation you're talking about. What do you think about that? I know, you might have some opinions on that… Feel free to speak your peace.
Dann: Well, it's an interesting idea, and cultivating the inherited good, comes with the stated (we'll call it a principle for now) principle that there was an inherited good. What if there wasn't? What if there was not good and really not good?
Penjammin: So, it's all inherited bad, huh? Okay.
Dann: What if?
Penjammin: Okay. Just hypothetically, why not?
Dann: What if that's the case? What if there isn't inherited good. There's just inherited levels of not good to really, really, really not good. So we brought up the Constitution before, uh, and I think it requires more than just reading the document. It was written by a bunch of lawyers who were very crafty and clever with their words to make a government that protected them from the masses. It was sold as something to protect the masses from the government. But that certainly hasn't worked out to be the case in 238 years. We can certainly say today that that's not the case. So somewhere along the way it went off the rails. My question is, what if it was designed never to be on the rails to begin with?
Penjammin: So what you're saying is- if I'm hearing you're right. (I'm not going to do the Karen Newman whatever. Um, Cathy Newman, “what you're saying is” [laughs].) IF I'm hearing you right… (I not going to assume that I am-)
Dann: Jordan, his composure during that interview really was-
Penjammin: Inspiring, among other things. Yeah.
Dann: Yes.
Penjammin: But yeah. So, IF this is what you're saying, that here's something, the constitution, which is taken to be a good that's been inherited, and even it is not so good (there may be somethings [we could take out of it] but it's really, you say, muddy and very much not good), then what is their [the conservative’s] inherited good? And I would put to you that perhaps the sphere of politics would be the most minute social sphere of which conservatism is interested. That's one thing that bugs me a lot when people talk about conservatism is that it's almost defined by Republicans. And why would on earth would you let them define what this is for you? It's about family, which does not necessarily have to do with politics. It has to do with faith and other things which people are [about separating] church and state. So it seems like there are so many things that are bigger, more intimate, and have more to do with it. I think historically even politics has been peripheral at best. So now it's becoming definitive. And so yes, that might be one place; maybe everything in politics is inherited bad to some degree (just for sake of argument), but then you got to say family is good, even if it's imperfect.
Dann: So I don't disagree with you, but this is one of those things. So, um. Family. Do you remember? You're probably old enough to remember… I can't remember the actress- Candice Bergen Show. There was a news show, and as an actress, she got very hot under the collar over Dan Quail's version of family. Mother, father, two kids and half . . .
Get the whole discussion, along with my eletter, here.
Penjammin grew up in a labyrinthine cavern. Later he ran with the wolves and lived every moment marinated in the sweet scent of his game, until pirates landed and… (see “About”). Get his eletter at penjams.com/subscribe.