If one benighted class of men begins by assuming that whatever is, is right, [contemporary radicals] begin by assuming that whatever is, is wrong. Had we to decide between these two-and I hope I make it clear that I do not think we have to decide thus-the latter would appear more blasphemous than the former because it makes a wholesale condemnation of a creation which is not ours and which exhibits the marks of a creative power that we do not begin to possess. The intent of the radical to defy all substance, or to press it into forms conceived in his mind alone ... is an aggression by the self which outrages a deep-laid order of things. (Richard Weaver)

If one benighted class of men begins by assuming that whatever is, is right, [contemporary radicals] begin by assuming that whatever is, is wrong. Had we to decide between these two-and I hope I make it clear that I do not think we have to decide thus-the latter would appear more blasphemous than the former because it makes a wholesale condemnation of a creation which is not ours and which exhibits the marks of a creative power that we do not begin to possess. The intent of the radical to defy all substance, or to press it into forms conceived in his mind alone ... is an aggression by the self which outrages a deep-laid order of things.

Richard Weaver

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aggression appear assuming begin class clear condemnation contemporary creation creative defy former hope intent men latter mind order power press radical right self substance think whatever wholesale wrong things marks

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