" We value these things not because they are triumphant and invincible but because they are precious and vulnerable; because they weren’t fated to happen, and they’re not certain to survive."

Conservatism and Gratitude

By Yuval Levin

Upon accepting one of the four Bradley Foundation prizes on June 12, 

Ethics and Public Policy Hertog Fellow Yuval Levin spoke about

 conservatism and gratitude. Excerpts from his speech follow.

Like every American, I’ve had the privilege of living in a country made better by the causes that Bradley champions — from welfare reform to school choice to the intellectual defense of American ideas and institutions: the conservation and the strengthening of America’s promise.

I want to say a few words about that project of conservation and strengthening. For some of us, it’s a project that goes by the name of conservatism and has an eye on politics and policy. For others, it may be first and foremost a cultural project, to secure the preconditions for human flourishing and renewal. For others it might be above all a moral calling — to defend the defenseless and help those in need. For others still it’s an educational cause, instilling civic virtue and a sense of history and purpose in the next generation.

Many conservatives do all of that at once, because these different facets are deeply connected, and these different names for the work we are engaged in are all ways of expressing the sentiment that drives so much of what we do but that we don’t often enough name: gratitude.

To my mind, conservatism is gratitude. Conservatives tend to begin from gratitude for what is good and what works in our society and then strive to build on it, while liberals tend to begin from outrage at what is bad and broken and seek to uproot it.

You need both, because some of what is good about our world is irreplaceable and has to be guarded, while some of what is bad is unacceptable and has to be changed. We should never forget that the people who oppose our various endeavors and argue for another way are well intentioned, too, even when they’re wrong, and that they’re not always wrong.

But we can also never forget what moves us to gratitude, what we stand for and defend: the extraordinary cultural inheritance we have; the amazing country built for us by others and defended by our best and bravest; America’s unmatched potential for lifting the poor and the weak; the legacy of freedom — of ordered liberty — built up over centuries of hard work.

We value these things not because they are triumphant and invincible but because they are precious and vulnerable; because they weren’t fated to happen, and they’re not certain to survive. They need us — and our gratitude for them should move us to defend them and to build on them.

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