Traditionalists, realists and commutarians

As the number of conservative bloggers on the Internet increases, it's becoming necessary to distinguish between those of a secular, scientific disposition, such as Randall Parker, John Derbyshire and Steve Sailer, from those with more strongly entrenched religious beliefs such as Jim Kalb, Lawrence Auster and Patrick Buchanan.

At the same time, there is also a need to differentiate economic egalitarians, who are critical of globalisation and cultural Marxism, from those on the liberal-left with more radical, anti-western agendas. Therefore, in writing my posts, I've decided on the following labels to identify these three types of liberal skeptics: "realists," traditionalists" and "commutarians."

Among other things, traditionalists (aka traditional conservatives or "reactionaries") believe in the importance of established religious and social practices, the fragility of prosperous civilisations, and the influence of inherited traits on human behaviour. Traditionalists are skeptical of progress and respect the wisdom of previous generations. Whilst not necessarily opposed to social or economic reform, they acknowledge that civilisation does not progress in a linear manner and that human nature cannot easily be influenced by education or social engineering. In foreign policy matters, traditionalists emphasis prudence and national self-interest over ambitious policies designed to spread particular ideologies or interfere with the politics of other countries. The traditionalist position is well-articulated by Mark Richardson at the Conservative Central Website.

Realists tend to be secular conservatives who are disillusioned with the increasingly ideological nature of modern liberalism. In common with traditionalists, realists believe in the importance of inherited traits in influencing human behaviour, and share the traditionalist's skepticism of progressive social engineering. Realists see technological change as inevitable, and have a high opinion of empirical science, but do not believe scientific progress inevitably leads to human betterment, and acknowledge progress depends on having a cohesive culture to support it. Subsequently they usually advocate a piece-meal approach to social and economic reform, which takes account of human nature and genetic variation. Potential sources of conflict between realists and traditionalists are controversial scientific matters such as birth control, eugenics, and genetic engineering. On foreign policy issues realists share the traditionalist preference for prudence and self-interest. Although the realist position has not yet been explicitly articulated, realist views on various issues can be found in the posts of bloggers such as Sailer and Parker.

Various other suggested labels for realists include:

"Darwinian conservatives," "scientific conservatives," " empirical conservatives" and "post-liberals".

Commutarians tend to be traditional socialists who believe in moderating economic inequality through established institutions, such as unions and cooperatives, whilst preserving the role of the sovereign state and established social norms and religious practices. They tend to dislike modern social engineering, which they see as unnecessary and undemocratic. They tend to believe that the mainstream liberal-left have abandoned the working and lower-middle classes and now operates in the interests of special interest groups and state bureaucracies. Commutarians are skeptical of globalisation and critical of aggressive foreign policies which unnecessarily interfere in the affairs of other countries.