The Anti-War WW II Veteran Who Laid the Foundations of American Conservatism
Robert Nisbet was a sociologist. Beginning in 1953, he established his intellectual leadership in the American conservative movement. Yet he was opposed to modern warfare, with its messianic claims and gigantic budgets.
While conservative Republicans usually favor Pentagon spending, this is because they do not understand how military spending expands the state and reduces our wealth. Nisbet fully understood, and he warned against it.
He thought the Pentagon spent way too much money. He saw military spending as undermining the American universities. While leftists got all the publicity, the Pentagon got the contracts. The money corrupted higher education.
Nisbet recognized that modern warfare calls for great crusades. Great crusades expand the state. The state rarely goes back to what it was before the great crusade. It did after World War I, but not for long.
If you are curious about an anti-war conservative who thought the foreign policy of the United States would eventually produce a widespread loss of liberties, including privacy, click the link. I have written an article on the stand he took against military spending in the era of Cold War spending.
Continue reading here.
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Posted on April 30, 2013. The original is here.