A friend sent me this Jonah Goldberg fisking of Crunchy-Conism. I hadn't read this before I went into my own rant (scroll down), but we agree: Crunchy-conism owes more to Rousseau than Christianity; the Crunchy-cons are materialists unbeknownst to themselves; and the Crunchy-cons have no idea who's been fighting the battles they claim to believe in for the past 50 years. To the extent that Dreher argues for anything, he's wrong --dangerously so --and anti-Catholic (again, I beg him to read Deus Caritas Est, where I believe he'll find every one of his assumptions challenged). But ultimately I would argue he isn't actually saying anything at all, except that he likes some stuff and not other stuff.
On the one hand, Rod denounces consumerism as the whisper of Satan in your ear. On the other hand, buying the right expensive foods for the right reason is not only a politically redeeming act, it is in fact a religiously "sacramental" deed. Buying yummy food — preferably locally grown organic food — and sharing it over wine with smart friends is a means and an end to personal and social transformation, redounding outward and inward in a virtuous spiral of catholic goodness in opposition to the malignant "cult of efficiency" destroying our society. But, Rod confesses, "Would I stand by the little guy if doing so meant paying premium prices for second-rate products? Nope." Well, so much for all that.
Besides, reality is a lot simpler. As all the truly virtuous understand, it's home-grown tomatoes that will save the Republic.
UPDATE: My Crony writes:
Far be it from me to defend Voltaire, but he was funny. It's said that after reading Rousseau's First Discourse, he wrote the latter to say, "Sir: one feels like crawling on all fours after reading your work." Ditto the crunchy cons.
