Justice Without Hyphens, or, Is ‘Post-Modern Conservatism’ an Oxymoron?

This week you're really in for it, as Steve Hayward presents another of his lectures on conservative thought at Yale for the William F. Buckley Program. Steve decides to tackle the "P-word"—Postmodernism. The term is overused, vague, and, like so many other things, badly corrupted by the left. In fact, the useable parts of it are actually old conservative ideas in some respects—a fresh vindication of Samuel Johnson's famous review that argued "what's good is not original, and what's original is not good." This is a very preliminary investigation, and the theme needs a lot more work, so listeners who survive this are encouraged to comment and pose further questions for discussion.

The bumper music for this week's episode was deliberately chosen to fit the topic: "Mad Sounds" by the Arctic Monkeys, and "Childhood's End" by Marillion, since a lot of what goes under the banner of "postmodernism" is indeed mad, and overcoming it does require some adult maturity.