“Conservatives pride themselves on resisting change, which is as it should be. But intelligent deference to tradition and stability can evolve into intellectual sloth and moral fanaticism, as when conservatives simply decline to look up from dogma because the effort to raise their heads and reconsider is too great.”

— William F. Buckley Jr.

"Free Weeds" in National Review (29 June 2004).
Context: Conservatives pride themselves on resisting change, which is as it should be. But intelligent deference to tradition and stability can evolve into intellectual sloth and moral fanaticism, as when conservatives simply decline to look up from dogma because the effort to raise their heads and reconsider is too great.
The laws concerning marijuana aren't exactly indefensible, because practically nothing is, and the thunderers who tell us to stay the course can always find one man or woman who, having taken marijuana, moved on to severe mental disorder.
But that argument, to quote myself, is on the order of saying that every rapist began by masturbating.
General rules based on individual victims are unwise.
And although there is a perfectly respectable case against using marijuana, the penalties imposed on those who reject that case, or who give way to weakness of resolution, are very difficult to defend.

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William F. Buckley Jr. 43

American conservative author and commentator 1925–2008

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Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister

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Phillip Blond (1966) British philosopher

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Source: Interview with Philip Blond http://www.dr.dk/Forms/Published/PlaylistGen.aspx?qid=616842&odp=true&bitrate=low&location=Lyngby&uri=http://www.dr.dk/Forms/Published/PlaylistGen.aspx, Den 11. time, DR2, 3 March 2008, Windows Media file, 28 min. (in English with Danish subtitles)

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“The idea of the sacred is quite simply one of the most conservative notions in any culture, because it seeks to turn other ideas — uncertainty, progress, change — into crimes.”

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William F. Buckley Jr. 43

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