explicitly rejected.nThe third dogma central to conservatism is the complexitynthesis, the center of conservative epistemology. Abstractnrationalism and all arrogant attempts to use rational modelsnof human and social behavior to construct political andnsocial institutions are inherently based on a most imperfectnunderstanding of extremely complex systems. All socialnprojects must be approached with difiFidence and constructednby slow adaptation and experimentation, by “muddlingnthrough,” to use Irving Babbitt’s phrase.nDerivative from this basic tenet is the contention that thensize and complexity of centralized government must benlimited because of the infeasibility of maintaining effectivenarchitectonic intelligence. It should be noted, however, thenconservative has no intrinsic love of capitalism but regards itnas a system of economics that does, at least in part, accordnwith man’s limited and diffused capacity for gathering andnusing knowledge—i.e., each man is best prepared to makenrational choices only about his immediate community’snsocial, political, or economic life. But this approbation ofncapitalism is delimited by the society’s ethical requirementsnthat will always take precedence over the dictates of thenamoral bourgeois capitalist economic system.nThese three central tenets were forcefully promulgated innpractice if not in voice by the vast majority of 18th-centurynAmericans—a conservative people, albeit an anomalouslynpopular one.nFrom the conservative’s perspective, the aristocracy, andnfrequently the peasantry, are understood to be reservoirs ofnauthentic communal values. Their respective corporaten”self-regulation” and transgenerationality are seen as fundamentalnfor the survival of any culture. For this reason, thenconservative demands that the peasantry be distinguishednfrom the poor urban masses who possess neither self-controlnnor a sense of historic responsibility. Consequently, unlikena well-established peasantry, the urban mass is not to ben**/ would not want to live in a worldnthat did not include This World/’n- Ralph MclnernynSend for the next issue ofnThis World – today!nMail this coupon and your checl< to:nThis World, 934 N. Main St., Rocl