I have read the recent interview with Mr. Jacob Rees-Mogg in The Wall Street Journal, “Jacob Rees-Mogg: Progress Depends on Conservatism.” I did so with deep interest and even deeper concern. The interview itself is quite revealing, not merely for what it says about the state of conservatism in Great Britain, but for what it reveals about the spiritual and economic sickness that continues to plague the free world.
Mr. Rees-Mogg seems to be a man of undoubted intellect and charm. He also styles himself as a “Member for the 18th Century.” He speaks of “Paleo-Toryism,” of the sanctity of the “Sovereign Individual,” and he looks with admiration across the Atlantic at the political ascendancy of Donald Trump.
To read Mr. Rees-Mogg is to hear the echo of the same voices the world fought in the 1930s and 1940s - the voices of the privileged, the voices of the cartelists, the voices who believe that the government is the enemy of the people rather than their instrument. He offers us a future built upon the “traditions” of the past. But we must ask: whose traditions? And for whose benefit?
Looking at the world of the 21st century, from the financial wreckage of 2008 to the digital speculations of today, I see a struggle that is as old as the Scriptures: the struggle between the “Sovereign Individual” seeking to hoard wealth and the “Common Man” seeking to live in dignity. Mr. Rees-Mogg chooses the former. For the sake of transparency, in this matter and discussion, I stand with the latter.
The Illusion of the 18th Century
Mr. Rees-Mogg assumes the posture of a gentleman from the 18th century and claims that progress depends on such conservatism, citing the “British heritage of common law” and “personal virtue.” There is much to admire in the history of English liberty, but we must not look at the past through the stained glass of the manor house.
He may look back at the 18th century and see the brilliance of Burke and the elegance of the salon. When I look back at that century, I see the enclosure of the commons, where land was stolen from the people by the aristocracy and the dark satanic mills beginning to grind the bones of the poor. I see a time when the “Common Man” was not a citizen, but a subject; not a participant in the economy, but a tool of it.
To yearn for “Paleo” politics – literally politics of the fossilized past - is to yearn for a time when the few rode on the backs of the many. The American Revolution, led by men like Hamilton whom Mr. Rees-Mogg admires, was not fought to preserve the 18th-century order; it was fought to overthrow it. It was a step toward the realization that all men are created equal. We have not yet fully achieved that ideal, but the answer does not lie in retreating to the wig and the breeches. Put simply, I believe that an economic ceiling without a stable floor leads to national collapse.
In discussions like this, I think of the oft-used quote, “A rising tide lifts all boats.” While attributed to John F. Kennedy (he borrowed it from the New England Council), and often used by supply-siders today, the original context implied that public investment in the “floor” of infrastructure and regional development creates the lift for the entire economy. The differing perspectives between Mr. Rees-Mogg and me can be easily understood via a multitude of famous quotes throughout history, but for this purpose, I will only list three:
“An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.” — Plutarch
“The well-being of a people is like a tree; agriculture is its roots, manufacture and commerce are its branches, and life; if the root is neglected, the leaves fall, the branches break, and the tree dies.” — Ancient Chinese Proverb
“We cannot expect a productive harvest if we do not nourish the soil. When the common man has the purchasing power to buy the products of our factories, the wheels of industry turn for everyone. Prosperity does not trickle down from the top; it bubbles up from the roots.” — Henry A. Wallace
The Golden Calf of Scarcity: Bitcoin and the “Printing Press”
Mr. Rees-Mogg speaks with the very common and confident error of the classical economist regarding money. He recites all the old dogmas: that the “printing press” is the root of all evil, that inflation is solely a monetary phenomenon, and that we must return to “honest money” - whether that be gold or its modern digital idol, Bitcoin.
We have heard this song before. In 1933, the “sound money” men insisted that we crucify the American farmer on a cross of gold, that raising prices to save the debtor was immoral. They were wrong then, and Mr. Rees-Mogg is wrong now.
He marvels at “The Sovereign Individual,” a book that proudly predicts technology will allow the wealthy to “bypass national monopolies” and escape the state. He views Bitcoin as a “rebellion against the state destruction of value.”
Let us be clear: this is not liberty; this is desertion.
Money is not a god to be worshipped in a vacuum. Money is a tool to facilitate the exchange of goods and labor. When the government uses its power to manage currency - to “print money,” as he disparagingly calls it - it is often doing so to prevent the catastrophe of deflation, to keep men employed, and to ensure that the farmer gets a fair price for his corn.
Mr. Rees-Mogg and his “Sovereign Individuals” dream of a world where they can hide their wealth in “mathematical algorithms,” safe from the necessary taxes that pay for the schools, the roads, and the hospitals of the community. Honestly, this stance sounds like someone seeking escape from responsibility, seceding from the brotherhood of man. A currency based on nothing but artificial scarcity and speculation - whether it is gold dug from the ground or code mined by a computer - is a sterile thing. From one Christian to another, how can a follower of Christ support this model? It produces no wheat; it clothes no nakedness. It is a casino for the elite, while most of mankind waits for the crumbs to fall from the table.
The Specter of American Fascism
Most disturbing of all is Mr. Rees-Mogg’s admiration for Donald Trump. He praises Mr. Trump for “uniting the right,” including the “soggy Republicans.” He aims to introduce this brand of unity to the United Kingdom.
The most dangerous fascist is not the foreigner with a swastika, but the American demagogue who claims to be a super-patriot. We received our own written warning in 1944 about the danger of “American Fascism:”
“The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information... Their final objective is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.” – “The Danger of American Fascism,” The New York Times, April 9, 1944
Mr. Rees-Mogg sees a clever political strategy in Mr. Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party, but I see the fulfillment of a nightmare. When a political movement merges the wildest interests of the corporate greed with the darkest prejudices of the mob, when it attacks the “party line” of democracy as “boring” and replaces it with the cult of personality, when it seeks to destroy faith in our institutions - not to reform them, but to rule over their ruins - that is not conservatism. That is simply the precursor to tyranny.
Mr. Rees-Mogg speaks of “personal virtue” and “family and faith” as bulwarks against the state. I agree that the family is a sacred institution. But you cannot claim to cherish the home and its virtues while unleashing the unchecked avarice that grinds its foundations into dust. So, I ask: What refuge does the ordinary household have when the barriers against corporate predation are torn down in the name of ‘freedom’? And what happens to “personal virtue” when the “Sovereign Individual” is taught that his only duty is to his own wallet? When the people’s government is disarmed, the liberty of the family vanishes, replaced by the tyranny of the trust.
The “Paleo-Tory” alliance with the MAGA movement is a betrayal of the very traditions of liberty Mr. Rees-Mogg claims to cherish. It is an alliance of the boardroom and the mob, directed against the middle class and the poor.
Science for the People, Not Just for the Privileged
Mr. Rees-Mogg shows us a charming vignette of using Artificial Intelligence to translate a 15th-century Latin text. He treats this technology as a parlor trick for the gentleman scholar.
However, the ability to acquire knowledge is no longer the sole privilege of the scholarly. A person does not have to have spent a lifetime in science to know the power of genetics, of hybridization, of statistics. For example, we all can now know that the same science that created the atomic bomb also gave us the hybrid corn that feeds half the world.
I believe that technology is a gift from God, revealed through the mind of man, but it is a gift that must be used for the General Welfare. If AI is used only to help the “Sovereign Individual” translate Latin or hide his assets in cryptocurrency, it is a wasted talent. If it is used to concentrate wealth in fewer hands, to displace workers without a plan for their dignity, then it becomes a slap in God’s face and a curse upon our nation.
We must channel these great inventions not into the private coffers of the tech-monopolies, but into the service of the people. The solutions to our problems require our social invention to match our mechanical invention.
The Way Forward: The Cooperative Century
Mr. Rees-Mogg ends by quoting the Book of Lamentations: “Renew our days as of old.”
That’s fine, but I prefer the Prophet Micah: “They shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid.”
We cannot go back to “days of old.” We cannot retreat to the 18th century. We cannot hide in the bunkers of the “Sovereign Individual.” The challenges of this millennium - climate change, global inequality, the power of multinational cartels - require a global consciousness.
The way forward is not “Paleo,” it is Progressive.
It is not about the “Sovereign Individual,” but the “Cooperative Community.”
We need a government that is strong enough to subdue the giants of industry and finance, yet humble enough to serve the smallest citizen. We need a capitalism that has been cleansed of its out-of-control greed and dedicated to the production of abundance. We need a democracy that is not a “boring” consensus, but a vibrant, fighting faith in the common sense of the Common Man.
Mr. Rees-Mogg may drink his instant coffee (of which I am also a fan!) as a small act of rebellion, but the true rebellion - the rebellion of the spirit - is the fight to ensure that every child has the milk, the education, and the opportunity to serve God and humanity in peace. Then we would actually be “Christ-like,” and for a party that so closely aligns itself with Christian belief, that should be the only progress that matters.