Viktor Orban, leader of Hungary and a famous, and perhaps infamous conservative said in a presentation at the US National Conservatism Conference that he once walked to Margaret Thatcher's flat and knocked on the door. The Iron Lady came to the door, opened it and simply said:
“I disagree with everything you say!”It is a great story and more telling than anyone listening to him speaking could even begin to understand.
Orban is not one who comes immediately to mind when Margret Thatcher is brought up. Ronald Reagan is most often the name associated with the British Prime Minister of the day, but this is all a good illustration of a point that should be brought to the very front of our conscience:
Nationalism means differing things to different people.To people in Europe in general, and these days, in Eastern Europe in specific, it is a matter of heritage. That is, people belonging to a particular ethnic group, and geographic location perhaps with a religious history at the fringe or at the very center. It is about blood and soil and faith.
I think it is safe to say that Northern Europe has the same propensities but has been more open to the concept of a broader ethnic base out of pure logical philosophy. These societies tend toward a more “classical liberal” world view and work toward openness while still maintaining their values and institutions. Such ideologies also prevail to a degree in Western Europe.
So while typical “blood and soil” nationalism still exists in Northern and Western Europe and the British Isles, a strong spice from the new world has added a new flavor to the European nationalistic stew. It is not that it did not exist in some places and forms before on the continent, but it got its best seedstock from North America when planted in European and British soil!
One of the best examples of what I seek to illustrate is from the aforementioned Iron Lady, Margeret Thatcher:
“Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy.”In other words, Europe was a result of national ethnicities and, or religion in a specific piece of land struggling with or cooperating with another. The US resulted from the “classical liberal” philosophy that all men are created politically equal and were born with “unalienable rights” such as life liberty and the opportunity to pursue happiness without the boundaries of blood or soil or religion.
We are a motley crew here in the United States. We are made up of every ethnicity in the world. People come here with every ideology and religion and color and palate and in spite of our differences, it somehow works, and because of our differences, it works better than anywhere else in the world! These differences all become a part of our national stew.
National Conservatism, or Conservative Nationalism as it is sometimes called is an effort to move to a European form of monarchical conservation based on location, ethnicity or religion, all of which are deprecated in a nation built on the concept of natural law rights and free minds. National Conservatism is the opposite of the foundation on which we were built.
You may maintain your ethnic characteristics and culture, and please do! You may maintain your religion, and I pray that you will! We have freedom enough for you to do so in peace and prosper.