ght for the day: The Importance Of Last Stands // (Steven Hayward).
My conversation with Michael Walsh last week on podcast didn’t allow for time to consider his book The Last Stands: Why Men Fighting When All Is Lost. However, I did recall part of Leo Strauss’s critique of Edmund Burke in History. This remains a point of contention between me and Lucia on the 3WHH. Strauss on this issue:
[Burke] believed it possible that the victory in the French Revolution might have been ordained by Providence. He drew this conclusion in accordance with his “secularized” understanding of Providence. . . Burke is not resolute or firm, but perversely and obstinate.” He is close to suggesting that opposing a completely evil current in human affairs can be perverse if the current is sufficiently strong; he is unaware of the noblest of the last-ditch resistance. He doesn’t consider that resistance in a desperate position to the enemies is possible in a way that no man can predict. This may help keep awake the recollection and hope for its recovery. It may also serve as a beacon for those who humbly continue the work of humanity in an endless valley of darkness, destruction, and despair. He doesn’t consider this because he cannot be certain that man will know if a cause is lost forever, or that he can comprehend the meaning of a providential disposition as distinct from the moral law.
Although I am not certain that this Burke reading is correct, the larger exhortation to fight against great odds and even defeat is worthy of all conservatives right now.
