French_Conservatism_fascism

French Conservatism/fascism What truths, if any, regarding man and society do you consider to be expressed in conservative doctrine' Conservatism, as an ideology is a relatively new phenomenon. It developed mainly in opposition to the French Revolution in 1789 and to the ‘enlightenment’ that preceded it. This ‘enlightenment’, which led to the revolution, was based on the perceived rationality of mankind and of mankind’s ability to reconstruct society according to abstract ideals. Conservatives fundamentally reject mankind’s rationality and tend to be guided more by the principles of tradition, hierarchy, and reform over revolution. According to O’Sullivan, in his work Conservatism, three broad schools of conservative thought are identified. This essay will concentrate primarily on the ‘French Reactionary School’, and particularly, but not exclusively on the thoughts of Joseph De Maistré, Maurice Barrès, and Charles Mourras. The French Reactionary School has been chosen as it offers several differences from almost all other Schools of thought, to the extent that some have seen it as a precursor to fascism. Also, due to restrictions of this essay and the immense diversity of conservative doctrine, a worthwhile account of more than one school of thought would not be possible. This essay society, de, maistré, mourras, man, nature, mankind, unity, school, french, state, regarding, reactionary, found, thought, spiritual, order, democracy, been, people, seems, conservative, ‘truth, saw, much, essay, claims’, societal, seen, revolution, god, france, doctrine, believed, barrès