FWIW, my take on Scruton's conservatism: 1. Yeah, Edmund Burke is pretty much right about the dangers of top down change motivated by a political philosophy derived from first principles. (I've thought that for years.)
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I can't see that it's that bad. Scruton's emphasis is on the sacred, esp. as intimated through high art, rather than specific religious doctrines. He is more subtle than you think. But I agree with some of your other criticisms.
Twitter doesn't allow for nuance! But my point stands - you're not going to mitigate the effects of rampant consumerism simply be telling people they need to change their lives. It needs to be top-down (if you want it to work).
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I suspect reform of the curricula of schools and universities might be high on his agenda here. Not sure if that counts as 'top-down' though. And abolish pop music and porn...
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But he can't really think if the school curricula changes, etc, then youngsters are suddenly going to be less interested in their Snapchat, X-Boxes and Beyonce? The social forces in play are too powerful, surely. It would actually take a radical reworking of the social order...
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I guess Scruton is trying through his writing etc. to contribute to a change of culture. And cultures do change - witness the success of feminism.
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Yes, he clearly hopes for a cultural change, but I'm not sure there's any instance where a culture has turned away from superabundance to embrace a return to the spiritual. At least, not in the face of a rampant democratising populism. It's a forlorn hope, Piers. We're lost!
End of conversation
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