Evolutionary conservatism counters both the stagnation of traditional conservatism and the nihilism of modern thinking

The classical conservative authors sought to “delay the decay,” says Patrick Deneen in his review of Ross Douthat's upbeat view of conservatism (“The Great Stagnation—or Decline and Fall?,” Modern Age, Spring 2020), the classical conservatives sought to “slow the rot and avoid unnecessary innovation.” This, says Deneen, is at the heart of the conservative disposition: “The course of the world is to run down. The failure of one generation to pass along its virtues is akin to the natural degradation of our genetic code and the inevitable decline and death of our bodies."

But I believe it has been the denial and even taboo by conservatives of the biological origin of social behavior (which of course the leftist and postmodernists also deny) that is fueling the continuing decline of the West. The heart of the conservatism should first contain biological progression, as well as the effort to delay the decay. People instinctively know the truth of the biological origin of our social behavior, and ironically, denying it, is itself the result of biological competition consciously or unconsciously hiding real motives.

We have gotten far away from the real human nature we inherited from our ancestors and we can only truly rise when we go back to a healthy expression of who we really are. Human nature has been and remains genetically ethnocentric, even xenophobic, as well as being kin-centered, gender defined, age-graded, heterosexual marriage-making, hierarchical, with group-selection as the primary unit of selection, followed by individual-selection. We now know we can't build a lasting multicultural and multiracial nation with real human nature.

Conservatism needs to contain the revival of natural law in sociobiology, which is superior to the classical natural rights promoted by Leo Strauss, and it supersedes or reforms Christian natural law. In theological materialism natural law includes our material evolution to ascending levels of supermaterial Godhood, while retaining and transforming the old inward path of peak ascetic experiences.

The evolutionary conservatism of theological materialism counters both the stagnation of traditional conservatism and the nihilism of modern thinking. The heart of the conservatism should first contain the sacred material upward evolution to ascending levels of Godhood, as well as the conservative effort to delay degradation.