The Retrospective View and Desire for Stability; A Critique on the Book The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin

Abstract

Conservatism as an idea or ideology is strongly linked to objective political action and experience. Conservatives are often interested in maintaining what they see as desirable and of course, their resistance to changes deemed necessary by social and historical conditions that have made them prone to titles such as reactionary. The book “Reactionary Mind” has formed and studied the dimensions of this idea especially in Western Europe and the United States with the main claim that the idea of conservatism has always been based on dealing with the revolutionary currents, especially from the left tradition. Although the book is composed of material that has been published separately in different places in the past, it still tries to discuss a common trajectory beyond the study of various historical and political issues. In this article, with a brief look at the idea of conservatism, the view of “Corey Robin”, as the author of this book, is reviewed and criticized according to its Persian translation. In addition, it is tried to survey other dimensions of the idea of conservatism which is ignored and should be covered later.

Keywords

• conservatism
• edmund burke
• tradition
• revolution
• reform