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Sir Roger Scruton 1944-2020
Sir Roger Scruton
Philosopher, scholar, academic, and perhaps the most articulate conservative of our time, Sir Roger Scruton died this morning, a victim of cancer.
Conservatism, he held, means, above all, protecting what we hold dear—it means conserving. This view made Scruton a champion of freedom (during the Cold War, he smuggled books into Eastern Europe, assisting the Czech freedom movement in particular). It also made him a champion of beauty (read his work on the glories of European architecture), tradition (although never a believer, he admired the Church of England’s music and liturgy), and a patriot of a the most impressive kind (a proponent of Brexit, he devoted much of his final years to explaining, calmly, that centuries of development had given Britain a distinctive character, including a distinctive form of self-government, that was well worth withdrawing from the European Union to preserve).
Herewith my interview with Sir Roger of not quite three years ago.
Farewell to a sane, amusing, brave, and humane man—he represented a living definition of “valor.” Sir Roger Scruton, requiescat in pace.
Published in Culture
Also the victim of a progressive smear campaign that probably took a lot out of him.
So very sad. An amazing, good and courageous man and a voice of reason amidst all the insanity especially the insanity in the UK. May he rest in peace and may others continue his work.
Sir Roger Scruton was a worldwide treasure, and will be greatly missed…
Deepest condolences to his family and friends, including you Peter. I understand you and he had a warm friendship. A great intellect and splendid person is gone.
Here’s a long discussion with Sir Roger and Jordan Peterson at Cambridge University on “Apprehending the Transcendent”. Refreshing to hear two brilliant minds discuss what’s beautiful and good about western civilization.
RIP
Very sad news.
Today, the world is a little darker.
For me, and for young conservatives of a certain stripe, Roger Scruton is an indispensable figure — a lone voice of wisdom amid the crazed cacophony of postmodernity; a rare defender of life’s permanent things; and a man of uncommon learning, grace, and wit. He was a friend to the dissidents of Czechoslovakia and Poland . . . and an inspiration to us dissidents trapped in the academy. And now, he’s gone.
Peter,
A great loss to us all.
Regards,
Jim
Tragic news. I loved this man from afar.
There is now another void in the force of freedom loving people.
A fine man. May his words continue to inspire many generations to come. RIP
Several years ago, I attended a chamber music concert at the studio of a local artist. The program notes sounded very Scrutonesque to me so I asked the artist if he was familiar with Scruton’s writings. He replied that not only was he familiar with Roger Scruton but that Scruton had sat for a portrait on a recent visit to the area.
Sir Roger’s influence is to be found in the most unlikely of places. He will be missed.
What unfortunate news! To lose such a courageous man in such cowardly times. He managed to do this with dignity and grace. True gentlemen are a dying breed, it’s always so sad to see one go.
I discovered Scruton about ten years ago and have read many of his books. He was a truly learned man with a great sense of irony and humor. He will be missed in our insane era.
And yet he was able to express gratitude.
How fitting that he should have written a diary of his final year. It’s here in the The Spectator UK.
Oh no! That is a loss for conservatism. Grant eternal rest onto him, Lord, and may perpetual light shine on his soul. I’m sorry to hear of this.
Thank you. Your long form interviews are an invaluable service, as exemplified by this one.
He was a great guy and a great speaker.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu5T3sWAg0w
At once a heartbreaking and uplifting read.
OK, I watched the entire interview, and it was thoroughly enjoyable. I must commend you Peter. Great interview. Let me say that what struck me was how un-Libertarian Scruton’s conservatism was, how un-conservative Libertarianism actually is, and how much sense it all makes for the conservative movement to filter out the Libertarian appendages that have affixed itself to the body of Conservatism over the years. Roger Scruton is the British version of Russell Kirk.
Having read at least 3 different but similar salutes at National Review, I am left with this question:
Who would be the similar people on the left? Is there anyone in the socialist camp who might be considered a “great thinker”?
Camille Paglia is probably the best I can think of. Christopher Hitchens was, but he’s been gone for almost a decade.
I think the others are people who became Republicans in the 70s. They are currently outraged by the turn of events they call “Trumpism,” but have yet to go back to the camp where they might be able to make a positive difference.
Roger Scruton was one of two modern philosophers who most influenced how I look at the world. The other is Thomas Sowell.
I could recommend several great books by him, but the one that most impressed was his memoir: Gentle Regrets: Thoughts from a Life, published in the mid-2000s.
Here are three examples of his beautiful, deep, and gentle prose:
What a good and wise man.
Afternoon Brian @brianwatt,
Thanks for the link, first half was very good about transcendence.
This will not be another praise of Scruton, even though Mike Rapkoch @mikerapkoch advised me to read Sir Roger, which I did to my benefit. At about the 32 minute mark of Peter’s interview, Peter ask how would Roger like to grapple with Donal Trump, Roger replied, “I’d rather not. His defects of character are so manifest that one can recognize that he has put you in a new position.” That response was illustrative of the lostness of our modern world. In what history is Trump’s character leagues different from FDR, Nixon, JFK, HWB, Clinton, or Obama. Scruton thinks that Trump has put him in a different place, well, what odd place has he been to think that these other presidents has vastly different characters? Then to weaselly say in a blame shifting way that Trump has put him in a different place, if Trump weren’t so icky he’d feel better. Is this thinking?
Fundamentally, this may be about the definitions of the words character and neighbor. What is a neighbor, I’ll use VDH’s today description:
“I grew up with an entire local network of clubs and get-togethers, and ferried my grandparents to periodic meetings of the Walnut Improvement Club, Eastern Star, the Odd Fellows, Masons, the Grange, and Sun-Maid growers. They exchanged gossip, of course, but also vital folk and empirical information on irrigation, fertilizers, and machines.
The point was to remind us that “we” (i.e., the vanishing rural classes) needed to stick together—especially given glimpses of what the country would be like in the 21st century. When one of us died or got sick, people showed up with flowers, food, and offered help—whether the use of a tractor, or truck or hired man to “get you through this.”
Now? Zilch.”
So the neighbors in the farming community VDH grew up in were not some abstraction, as in I treat everyone as my neighbor (a deceitful statement), they were people with names to whom one had obligations, to help and comfort, and counsel, and who one could rely on to do the same for you without ever asking or ever expecting repayment. That is a neighbor. So a demonstration of love for a neighbor is not some abstract hot air, it is as a leader saying, I will look out for my countrymen, not all men, I will look out for America’s workers, and I will use all the tools, including blunt and harsh tools, I have to do so. In a recent series of comments Percival @percival said “in a fight to the death, fight dirty, you can regret your underhanded tactics if you survive.” Close, I think. So Trump, as Scruton says is willing to say the unsayable, but Scruton doesn’t seen to know that the willingness to fight with all you have for your neighbor including dirty is a type of character that in our spoiled modern times we think is unseemly. Character is not seen in how one comports oneself or the crease in one’s pants, it is the willingness to fight for your neighbors even at a great cost to yourself. The leaders in the West have not fought for their cultures or their countries because they lack character, they live a life where their passivity has cost them nothing and they do not like those neighbors that have the Walmart smell. I know Roger has had a life that includes a love of the rural world, but it will take some one like Trump to defend it.
I first found this quote on religion in a piece about his marriages Scruton published in City Journal, a piece which influenced how I went about my own marriage. What that City Journal piece does not mention, though, was the love affair between his marriages, one he wrote about elsewhere and I summarize here. Framed in typical vulgar style, the affair between Scruton and his Basia was “thwarted”, in that it avoided sexual union. In reality, it accomplished its purpose, and is the kind of love story vulgar affairs cannot hope to compete with.
It is Sir Roger Scruton not Pope Roger