From the late Roger Scruton.
On the snake-eating-its-own-tail quality of Post- Modernism:
3. Scruton on when to ignore a writer: “A writer who says that there are no truths, or that all truth is ‘merely relative,’ is asking you not to believe him. So don’t. Deconstruction deconstructs itself, and disappears up its own behind, leaving only a disembodied smile and a faint smell of sulphur.” [emphasis added]
7. Love is the source of the conservative worldview: “The real reason people are conservatives is that they are attached to the things that they love, and want to preserve them from abuse and decay. They are attached to their family, their friends, their religion, and their immediate environment.” [emphasis added]
I would add that Conservatism is NOT about the worship of old, dead coals. It is about the preservation of fire. It is about being a historical empiricist–preserving what is tried-and-true-good rather than privileging the new simply because it is NEW and it superficially sounds good…