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Rush article at The American Conservative


dapoopa
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Nice article. I am less surprised where it came from however...

 

This. The American Conservative is a libertarian-leaning website. Why would it be surprising to find someone sympathetic with Rush's ethos. I'm a regular reader of "TAC" and have appreciated other entries by this particular writer (he's written about music before btw). A few interesting descriptions of the website:

 

The American Conservative was founded by Scott McConnell, Patrick Buchanan, and Taki Theodoracopulos in 2002 in opposition to the Iraq War. Daniel Strauss wrote:

The idea of
The American Conservative
was that there were enough who disagreed with mainstream conservatism—
,
, and
conservatives, among other dissenters—to warrant such a publication. While other conservative magazines like
and
marched more or less in lockstep with the
,
The American Conservative
argued for a different course—sometimes with greater ferocity than the major political magazines on the left.

 

In 2009 Reihan Salam, National Review editor,wrote that the publication had "gained a devoted following as a sharp critic of the conservative mainstream."

 

In 2012 David Brooks, columnist at The New York Times, wrote:

 

 

The American Conservative
has become one of the more dynamic spots on the political Web. Writers like Rod Dreher and Daniel Larison tend to be suspicious of bigness: big corporations, big government, a big military, concentrated power and concentrated wealth. Writers at that Web site, and at the temperamentally aligned
, treasure tight communities and local bonds. They’re alert to the ways capitalism can erode community. Dispositionally, they are more
than
.
Edited by Rutlefan
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Nice article. I am less surprised where it came from however...

 

This. The American Conservative is a libertarian-leaning website. Why would it be surprising to find someone sympathetic with Rush's ethos. I'm a regular reader of "TAC" and have appreciated other entries by this particular writer (he's written about music before btw). A few interesting descriptions of the website:

 

The American Conservative was founded by Scott McConnell, Patrick Buchanan, and Taki Theodoracopulos in 2002 in opposition to the Iraq War. Daniel Strauss wrote:

The idea of
The American Conservative
was that there were enough who disagreed with mainstream conservatism—
,
, and
conservatives, among other dissenters—to warrant such a publication. While other conservative magazines like
and
marched more or less in lockstep with the
,
The American Conservative
argued for a different course—sometimes with greater ferocity than the major political magazines on the left.

 

In 2009 Reihan Salam, National Review editor,wrote that the publication had "gained a devoted following as a sharp critic of the conservative mainstream."

 

In 2012 David Brooks, columnist at The New York Times, wrote:

 

 

The American Conservative
has become one of the more dynamic spots on the political Web. Writers like Rod Dreher and Daniel Larison tend to be suspicious of bigness: big corporations, big government, a big military, concentrated power and concentrated wealth. Writers at that Web site, and at the temperamentally aligned
, treasure tight communities and local bonds. They’re alert to the ways capitalism can erode community. Dispositionally, they are more
than
.

Exactly. The guy wrote a biography of Russell Kirk (a sympathetic one, one must assume considering he occupies a chair honoring him) who is as far, in temperament and policy, about as far from Trump as possible. One wonders though if the author would be as enamored with the present day Peart as much as the one who inspired him back in the 80s.

Edited by laughedatbytime
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One wonders though if the author would be as enamored with the present day Peart as much as the one who inspired him back in the 80s.

 

He may not have been enamored with Neil Peart of the 80's, either. Peart liked some of Ayn Rand's ideas - not necessarily all of them. He was not a total disciple.

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One wonders though if the author would be as enamored with the present day Peart as much as the one who inspired him back in the 80s.

 

He may not have been enamored with Neil Peart of the 80's, either. Peart liked some of Ayn Rand's ideas - not necessarily all of them. He was not a total disciple.

I don't see the author of the article as being particularly a "true disciple of Rand" either; he wouldn't have chosen the songs he did if he was. I think the things that spoke to him most were those he closed the article with, striving for excellence and being yourself, ones not inconsistent with Rand, but not reliant on her philosophy either. If he was drawn to Rush specifically because of Rand he would have chosen other elements of their catalog, rather than the ones that seem to have spoken to him the most, "Tom Sawyer" and "Subdivisions" (along with p/g, on which I don't see any traces of Rand's philosophy.)

Edited by laughedatbytime
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If he was drawn to Rush specifically because of Rand he would have chosen other elements of their catalog, rather than the ones that seem to have spoken to him the most, "Tom Sawyer" and "Subdivisions" (along with p/g, on which I don't see any traces of Rand's philosophy.)

 

Interestingly, GUP does have traces of what caused their musical output to go to pot.

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I suppose the reason why I was surprised to see this type of article at TAC was the screen time devoted to Obama and Michael Moore in the Time Stand Still movie. Don't mean to turn this into a politics thread...but it did strike me as a bit odd.

 

I was actually surfing around for info on US foreign policy and suddenly there's Geddy...

 

However, given the libertarian leanings of some of Neil's lyrics in the past, I can understand how the author would resonate with the band.

 

I also did enjoy the article. The author found Rush exactly one year before me.

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I suppose the reason why I was surprised to see this type of article at TAC was the screen time devoted to Obama and Michael Moore in the Time Stand Still movie. Don't mean to turn this into a politics thread...but it did strike me as a bit odd.

 

I was actually surfing around for info on US foreign policy and suddenly there's Geddy...

 

However, given the libertarian leanings of some of Neil's lyrics in the past, I can understand how the author would resonate with the band.

 

I also did enjoy the article. The author found Rush exactly one year before me.

Not to be too pedantic, but one of the statements above should read that the "band (or the band's output/lyrics/ethos) would resonate with the author", not the other way around.

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The author of the RUSH article appears to be a prog-rock fan as he's posted pieces on 90's groups Big Big Train and Glass Hammer along with Marillion as well.

 

Progressive-rock in general has probably influenced his political views,

 

I find Prog Rock to be no more political than any other forms of Rock music.

In my opinion, post Moving Puctures, Peart’s lyrics have been more personal observation than political.

 

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Great article... many young dudes went through a similar thing with Rush, or their favourite band, which could have been anyone.
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