Mel Bradford

Melvin Eustace Bradford (May 8, 1934 – March 3, 1993) was an American conservative author, political commentator and professor of literature at the University of Dallas. Quotes Equality as a moral or political imperative, pursued as an end in itself — Equality, with the capital "E" — is the antonym of every legitimate conservative principle. Contrary to most Liberals, new and old, it is nothing less than sophistry to distinguish between equality of opportunity (equal starts in the "race of life") and equality of condition (equal results). For only those who are equal can take equal advantage of a given circumstance. And there is no man equal to any other, except perhaps in the special, and politically untranslatable, understanding of the Deity. Not intellectually or physically or economically or even morally. Not equal! Such is, of course, the genuinely self-evident proposition. Its truth finds a verification in our bones and is demonstrated in the unselfconscious acts of our everyday lives: vital proof, regardless of our private political persuasion. Incidental equality, engendered by the pursuit of other objectives, is, to be sure, another matter. Inside the general history of the West (and especially within the American experience) it can be credited with a number of healthy consequences: strength in the bonds of community, assent to the authority of honorable regimes, faith in the justice of the gods.But the equality of Professor Jaffa's essay, even in the ordinary sense of "equal rights", can be expected to work the other way around. For this equality belongs to the post-Renaissance world of ideology — of political magic and the alchemical "science" of politics. Envy is the basis of its broad appeal. And rampant envy, the besetting virus of modern society, is the most predictable result of insistence upon its realization. Furthermore, hue and cry over equality of opportunity and equal rights leads, a fortiori, to a final demand for equality of condition. Under its pressure self respect gives way in the large majority of men who have not reached the level of their expectation, who have no support from an inclusive identity, and who hunger for "revenge" on those who occupy a higher station and will (they expect) continue to enjoy that advantage. The end result is visible in the spiritual proletarians of the "lonely crowd." Bertrand de Jouvenel has described the process which produces such non-persons in his memorable study, On Power. They are the natural pawns of an impersonal and omnicompetent Leviathan. And to insure their docility such a state is certain to recruit a large "new class" of men, persons superior in "ability" and authority, both to their ostensible "masters" among the people and to such anachronisms as stand in their progressive way.Such is the evidence of the recent past and particularly of American history. Arrant individualism, fracturing and then destroying the hope of amity and confederation, the communal bond and the ancient vision of the good society as an extrapolation from family, is one villain in this tale. Another is rationalized cowardice, shame, and ingratitude hidden behind the disguise of self-sufficiency or the mask of injured merit. Interdependence, which secures dignity and makes of equality a mere irrelevance, is the principal victim. A Better Guide than Reason: Studies in the American Revolution (La Salle, IL: Sherwood Sugden & Company, 1979), "The Heresy of Equality: A Reply to Harry Jaffa", pp. 29–30. This essay is a direct response to Harry Jaffa's "Equality as a Conservative Principle", Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, VIII (June, 1975), pp. 471-505, which is itself a critique of The Basic Symbols of the American Political Tradition by Willmoore Kendall and George W. Carey (1970) External links Category:1934 births Category:1993 deaths Category:Non-fiction authors from the United States Category:Academics from the United States Category:People from Fort Worth Category:Political authors from the United States Category:Conservatives from the United States Category:Political commentators from the United States