Even accounting for the usual exaggeration inherent to polemical writing, Anthony Koch’s latest essay on the role of the state in “manufacturing” culture is, in my judgement, radical.
By way of background, following on recent political trends in the U.S. and elsewhere, a group of young Canadian conservatives has come to characterize themselves as the “New Right” and set out a series of arguments against, among other things, Ronald Reagan and classical liberalism and in favour of culture-war politics and a greater propensity towards statism.
While their critiques of the excesses of identity politics and other aspects of progressive governance resonate a great deal, their prescriptions—including a heavy emphasis on state-engineered cultural narratives—do not.