Requiescat in pace Sir Roger Scruton: Remembering a great man of letters who has been called home.

“I am a conservative. Quite possibly I am on the losing side; often I think so. Yet, out of a curious perversity I had rather lose with Socrates, let us say, than win with Lenin.” - Russell Kirk, "Why I Am a Conservative," Confessions of a Bohemian Tory: Episodes and Reflections of a Vagrant Career (1963)

Requiescat in pace, Sir Roger Scruton (1944-2020)

Sir Roger Scruton died today, at age 75, and the world is a lesser place with his absence. A one paragraph press statement on his website announced the death of the writer, philosopher, husband, father, and brother following a six month battle with cancer.

Sir Roger was a courageous man who in the midst of the Cold War traveled behind the Iron Curtain into Poland and Czechoslovakia to meet with dissidents, and demonstrate his solidarity with them, while risking prison himself.  He helped create "a pool of light" in which they could converse in freedom. He would continue this kind of work for the rest of his life.

I was introduced to who many describe as "the greatest conservative of our age" around 15 years ago by my friend Aramis Perez, and am grateful for it. In 2013 had the opportunity to meet the conservative writer and philosopher at a Forum 2000 gathering in Prague.  He was gracious, down to earth, and demonstrated his solidarity with Yris Perez Aguilera, a Cuban dissident attending the meeting.

Sir Roger Scruton together with Cuban dissident Yris Perez Aguilera at Forum 2000

Sir Roger's writings on beauty, morality, politics, environmentalism, democracy and education, and the importance of tradition are required reading with both a depth and breadth of knowledge  reminiscent of Anglo-Irish statesman Edmund Burke.

This blog has quoted this man of letters on several occasions over the past ten years, and been influenced by him.  Sir Winston Churchill observed that it was beneficial to read books of quotations, and that in doing so would spark interest in reading more of the person cited. Below is the full quote.

“It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations is an admirable work, and I studied it intently. The quotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more.” - Winston Churchill

In the spirit of wanting to encourage others to read the works of Sir Roger Scruton and share his views with others, below are some quotes of his that have impacted me over the years. Thanks to the internet some of these quotes are also linked to the essays from which they were excerpted.

"Without tradition, originality cannot exist: for it is only against a tradition that it becomes perceivable. Tradition and originality are two components of a single process, whereby the individual makes himself known through his membership of the historical group" - Roger Scruton, 2000. Modern Culture

"Rights are not secured by declaring them. They are secured by the procedures that protect them. And these procedures must be rescued from the state, and from all who would bend them to their own oppressive purposes." - Roger Scruton, October 16, 2004, "The State Can't Set You Free", The Spectator

"Hayek’s theory of evolutionary rationality shows how traditions and customs (those surrounding sexual relations, for example) might be reasonable solutions to complex social problems, even when, and especially when, no clear rational grounds can be provided to the individual for obeying them. These customs have been selected by the ‘‘invisible hand’’ of social reproduction, and societies that reject them will soon enter the condition of ‘‘maladaptation,’’ which is the normal prelude to extinction." - Roger Scruton "Hayek and conservatism", in Edward Feser (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Hayek (2006)

"For art cannot live in the world of kitsch, which is a world of commodities to be consumed, rather than icons to be revered. True art is an appeal to our higher nature, an attempt to affirm that other kingdom in which moral and spiritual order prevails. Others exist in this realm not as compliant dolls but as spiritual beings, whose claims on us are endless and unavoidable. For us who live in the aftermath of the kitsch epidemic, therefore, art has acquired a new importance … That is why art matters. Without the conscious pursuit of beauty we risk falling into a world of addictive pleasures and routine desecration, a world in which the worthwhileness of human life is no longer clearly perceivable." -Roger Scruton, May 5, 2009, Beauty

"I argue that environmental problems must be addressed by all of us in our everyday circumstances, and should not be confiscated by the state. Their solution is possible only if people are motivated to confront them." - Roger Scruton, December 4, 2012, How to Think Seriously About the Planet: The Case for an Environmental Conservatism 

"When we ask questions like this, are we naturally democratic? And what is the place of the democratic ethos in education? We realize that we are pulled between two competing forces. “Competition it seems to me has two different forms, one the natural form, the other the artificial form that we are all hoping for. The natural form of competition is that in which one person strives to dominate the rest and that person, if he succeeds, will then impose upon the rest his view of things. However, we hope for another form of competition, a non-natural form of competition in which the person who succeeds doesn’t want to dominate but simply to be heard. That you compete in politics for example in order that your voice should be heard and then you make room for the voices of others, that it seems to me is what the democratic instinct is."- Roger Scruton, September 13, 2015 "Are we naturally un-democratic" Forum 2000

My colleague Aramis Perez noted over social media that Sir Roger Scruton died on the same day Anglo-Irish statesman Edmund Burke was born 291 years ago today. This day will now be marked as one to remember and honor two conservative icons.

Requiescat in pace, Sir Roger Scruton (1944-2020)

Letter from Lech Wałęsa on death of Oswaldo Paya

Lech Walesa sends letter of condolence for Oswaldo Paya

Lech Wałęsa

The city of Gdansk, the July 23, 2012

Christian Liberation Movement

Havana, Cuba

Dear Friends:

No words can express the pain I felt when I learned of the sudden death of one of the leading democratic activists, the founder of the Christian Liberation Movement, Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas - my friend.

Oswaldo Paya will remain in my memory as a man of courage, determination and extraordinary fighting spirit. He was one of the most important voices of freedom in Cuba - and therefore incessantly spoke of the need to initiate political and economic reforms and to recognize the general human rights of every person. Oswaldo was confident that these changes may arise in a peaceful way and demanded that the entire Cuban nation participate in this process. On more than one occasion he made ​​reference in his letters that Solidarity and Poland's history as an indicator for him. I wrote that in the difficult path towards democracy faith is very important, it is almost the certainty that the struggle that one is developing, will bring success. The harsh experiences - repression, harassment, humiliations, and misunderstandings often faced by Oswaldo, have failed to kill in him this belief in the victory.

We have never had the opportunity to meet personally, but every time I exchanged correspondence, I expressed my hope that the moment would arrive when we shake hands in his homeland. Unfortunately this day is not going to arrive, I, however, have the hope that I will be able to stand in the cemetery in Cuba, saying goodbye to my friend and pay him the honor of a great and wise man who has been Oswaldo Paya.

I join in sorrow with His Family and those close to him and with my constant prayer in these difficult days.


Original letter in Spanish sent to the Christian Liberation Movement.

Lech Wałęsa

La ciudad de Gdańsk, el 23 de Julio de 2012

Movimiento Cristiano de Liberación

Habana, Cuba

Queridos Amigos:

No encuentro palabras para expresar el dolor que he sentido al enterarme de la repentina muerte de uno de los más importantes activistas democráticos, el fundador del Movimiento Cristiano de Liberación, Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas – mi Amigo.

Oswaldo Payá va a quedar en mi memoria como un hombre de valentía, determinación y espíritu de lucha extraordinarios. Fue una de las voces de libertad más importantes en Cuba – incesablemente y consecuentemente hablaba de la necesidad de iniciar las reformas políticas y económicas y de reconocer los derechos humanos generales de cada persona. Oswaldo confiaba en que estos cambios pueden surgir en vía pacífica y reclamaba a que en este proceso participe toda la Nación Cubana. No una vez hacia referencia en sus cartas que la Solidaridad y la historia de Polonia son un indicador para él. Yo escribía que en el difícil camino hacia la democracia la fe es de suma importancia, casi es la certeza sobre que la lucha que uno está desarrollando, va a traer éxito. Las experiencias duras - las represiones, los acosos, las vejaciones, frecuentemente la incomprensión que enfrentaba Oswaldo, no han logrado matar en él a esta convicción sobre la victoria.

Nunca hemos tenido la ocasión de conocernos personalmente, aunque cada vez que intercambiabamos la correspondencia, yo expresaba mi esperanza sobre que va a llegar el momento cuando nos estrechemos las manos en su Tierra Patria. Lamentablemente este día ya no va a llegar; yo, sin embargo, tengo la esperanza de que voy a tener la posibilidad de pararme en el cementerio en Cuba, despedirme de mi Amigo y rendirle el honor a un hombre grande y sabio que ha sido Oswaldo Payá.

Me uno en el dolor con Su Familia y Sus cercanos y aseguro de mi oración incesante en estos días tan difíciles.

Was another Cuban human rights defender murdered by the Castro regime?

Another prominent Cuban dissident dies under suspicious circumstances. Was it an extrajudicial killing or natural causes? Will international pressure lead to a  full accounting?

Document published in original Spanish in Notes from a journalist by Angelica Mora, Palabra Cubana and PayoLibre

Urgent Appeal to Public Opinion and the International Community. 

Democratic Municipal Circles of Cuba, in coordination with the Council of Human Rights Rapporteurs of Cuba make known the following:

Council of Rapporteurs activist Sergio Díaz Larrastegui, died this past April 19, 2012 at the Julio Trigo Hospital in Arroyo Naranjo in Havana, Cuba.

He died in the shadows, under the control of Cuban State Security.

The so-called doctor who informed us of the death was very nervous to the point that he couldn’t hide his nervousness. When asked of what did he die? He replied: I don’t know, look we're going to put that he died of liver failure and then do the autopsy and we’ll know. One cannot help but note that Sergio had an almost full recovery within the 3 or 4 last days and remained up all night talking coherently with nurses and a female friend who was allowed to accompany him until two days before the crime.

Furthermore his dynamism, including blood pressure worked perfectly, all the time at 110 with 80. And his kidneys and digestion when he was admitted also functioned acceptably. Sergio was blind, physically of black skin, measuring 1 m, 80 cm tall and was 54 years old.

There was no indication of any illness that would compromise his life or would take him to the risk of death, until only four weeks ago, when, ignoring our warnings that they were going to murder him, he was admitted for10 days to the Julio Trigo Hospital and under the control of the Political Police was diagnosed with decompensated cirrhosis of the liver, at which time he was discharged and sent home without any medical treatment. This forced us, his friends to take him back to the hospital in which they indicated some medicines, which could not be supplied, since at the start of the treatment he died.

Díaz Larrastegui had been threatened with reprisals on many occasions by the Government for maintaining our human rights center at his home. That and his refusal to work for State Security, who had demanded that he place microphones and cameras inside his home and inform them of everyone who visited us, it cost him to be fired from his workplace in Copestel and that they kept him under [constant harassment that amounted to] state terrorism.

The medical facility remained at all times under the control of officers of the Political Police, to the point that the elevator operator asked, what are all these people doing here? Pointing to a makeshift office in the very entrance of the Fifth A hall, where various officials remained and from where the soldiers monitored all of his activity.

The death of Sergio means the destruction of the headquarters of our Council and the most damaging blow in our 5 years of monitoring in the Cuban capital.

We demand from the Cuban government a detailed, written explanation of the causes and conditions that occasioned the death of our dear brother in the struggle, Mr. Sergio Díaz Larrastegui.

Now we’ll wait for the next sentence of murder to fall on independent journalist Tania Maceda Guerra, Juan Carlos González Leiva or the elderly Petra Serafina Díaz Castillo, who welcomed us into her home, because we are the main supporters and promoters of all the work of the CRDHC.

This blind, master of the English language, independent journalist, and creditor of other titles in Japanese, Spanish and French languages, enters to swell the long list of those murdered by the Cuban government or opposition and discontented dead in dark conditions or under suspicion of political crimes. Like the well known cases of: the leader of the Ladies in White, Laura Pollán, Orlando Zapata, Wilman Villar and Wilfredo Soto, and the victims of the “13 de marzo” tugboat.

Sergio Díaz Larrastegui for defending human rights resisted the tyranny of the Castros and suffered martyrdom as one more victim of political repression, for that all Cuba should remember him always as one of its heroes and martyrs.


Maranatha.


God bless Cuba in Christ.

Juan Carlos González Leiva. Executive Secretary. 
Tania Maceda Guerra. Secretary of the Organization.
Leticia Ramos Herrería. Secretary for Culture and Information.
Pedro Enrique Martínez Machado. Vice-president for the Eastern Region. 
Virgilio Mantilla Arango Vice-president for the Central Region. 
Raúl Borges Álvarez Secretary for the care of the prisons.
Maiquel Alexander Hernández Perdigón. Vice-president for the Western Region.