Crunchy Cons

Last week Justin, KC, and I wandered up to Eastern Market and passed the library which was having a book sale.  Like any good Cerveny we meandered off into the sale and came out with way too many books for our collection.  Good thing the books were only .50 to $1.   
I found one called Crunchy Cons in which the author Rod Dreher talks about alternatives to conservatism and how he isn't happy with the mainstream Cons.   You all should read it for it provides the idea that no matter you political ideology you should look beyond what is accepted in the mainstream and try to form your own opinions and attempt to see the world yourself instead of through somebody else's eyes.   Here is the manifesto he offered.


1. We are conservatives who stand outside the conservative mainstream; therefore, we can see things that matter more clearly.
2. Modern Conservatism has become too focused on money, power, and the accumulation of stuff, and insufficiently concerned with the content of our individual and social character.
3. Big Business deserves as much skepticism as big government.
4. Culture is more important than politics and economics.
5. A conservatism that does not practice restraint, humility, and good stewardship ---especially of the natural world --- is not fundamentally conservative
6. Small, Local, Old, and Particular are almost always better than Big, Global, New, and Abstract.
7 Beauty is more important than efficiency\
8. The relentlessness of media-driven pop culture deadens our senses to authentic truth, beauty, and wisdom.
9. We share Russell Kirk's conviction that  " the institution most essential to conserve is the family."
10. Politics and economics won’t save us; if our culture is to be saved at all, it will be by faithfully living by the Permanent Things, conserving these ancient moral truths in the choices we make in our everyday lives.


This has been an intriguing read so far and I would suggest it to anyone who enjoys learning and expanding themselves.