The fact of the matter is that, despite their posturing at either extreme, conservatives have no real interest in being serious about their traditionalism or their iconoclasm. Both poses, if genuine, would get in the way of the easy complacency of the frat-boy way of life. In their hands, traditional piety is turned into simple recitation, a merely perfunctory nod to conventional wisdom, while going against the grain becomes nothing more than harmless childishness. Instead of a sincere and committed conversation about values, they want a public square filled with Book of Virtues -style platitudes, pithy moralisms that are shielded both from debate and from any contact with actual life. In a public square like this, there is no difference between a Mother Theresa and a William Bennett or between the genuine transgressing of social norms and the madcap antics of the guys over at the Chi Psi lodge.
Conservatives claim that they stand for an ethic of freedom wedded to responsibility.
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