ABSTRACT
"Conservatism is hardly simple", Viereck states, "being more an implicit temperament, less an articulate philosophy than other famous isms" (CT xii). As an imaginative disposition and not a codified edict, the dream-nexus is grounded in the representative experience that provides living examples of the general direction of happiness. It is quite revealing of human nature, however, that people do not sufficiently recognize how much ethical inspiration the living derive from the experience of the dead. History is indisputable evidence not only of the inherent fallibility of human nature and the nemesis awaiting the careless pursuit of perfection, but of the quality of life most conducive to happiness. It is curious that Viereck refers to the Western ethical tradition as "unnatural" and "artificial". "The main defect of the new conservatism, threatening to make it a transient fad irrelevant to real needs", Viereck affirms, "is its rootless nostalgia for roots".
