Scruton-izing the Meaning of Green

By Paul Allen

January 1, 2013

Paul Allen says Roger Scruton's latest book should wake up progressives and conservatives alike.

Political so-called conservatives (SCCs) will find themselves sideswiped by Scruton's withering references to the consumer society, agribusiness conglomerates, and corporatism, and his judicious distinction between those goods that should be subject to market exchange and those things that can't be bought and sold As a conservative, Scruton wants Western culture to cherish sacred places, sacred time and the "priceless things of home His latest book, Green Philosophy: How to Think Seriously About the Planet, combines conservative political instincts, mid-level policy analysis and a robust rhetoric in aid of a new kind of environmentalism And then Scruton lays it on the line: if environmentalists genuinely want to succeed, they had better take to heart a form of genuine conservatism (let's call it GC for short) of local concern, a love of home and hearth, a cherishing of family and community—what he calls oikophilia

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