Saturday, October 6, 2007

Neoconservatism is Dead. Long Live Neoconservatism!

I'm kind of surprised that there has not been more discussion about Joshua Muravchik's "state of neoconservatism" address (or, as one blogger rather ingeniously put it, "8000 words to call for more cow bell in the Middle East"). So far there has been very little comment about the essay. The folks at the Weekly Standard did some cheer leading for the piece (as one would expect), but paleo-conservatives and liberals alike seem to have greeted the article with a giant yawn.

It's worth a read. Muravchik does a fine job of describing the evolution of the ideology (if you're into that kind of thing), but it's his survey of the current condition of neoconservatism and his thoughts on its future that I would imagine many people to find provocative. Muravchik does not seem to think neoconservatism is in need of defending and sees it being the unchallenged intellectual vogue for the foreseeable future.

It is long. I was thinking about writing a longer post on the essay, but there is simply too much to discuss -- which makes me wonder why no else is talking about it. Maybe that's the ultimate proof against Muravchik's claim; neoconservatism is so dead that it's not even worth debating anymore.

We'll see ...

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