A Short Rant on the Conceit of Always Being a Moderate or Why You May Be All Wrong Because You Think Nobody Can Be All Right

You know, I’m growing a little weary of moderates and centrists who feel themselves to be so above the partisanship that afflicts the rest of us. From their standpoint—so conspicuously removed from the theological and political sty in which the rest of us wallow—the “left” and the “right” are merely dupes of liberal and conservative overlords. Whereas the moderates and centrists see through all the parochial agendas the rest of us are just too simple to perceive. This heroic cast of self-justifiers glide through life unburdened by a need to take a stand on anything—except on what they believe is the meritoriously self-evident issue of not taking stands. Their orthodoxy can be summed up simply: There is no issue so nuanced that it can’t be cleaved down the middle, leaving two halves that correspondingly (and by definition) miss the truth, which can always be found at some point equidistant from both poles.

Consequently, the only cause over which it is worth getting exercised is getting exercised over causes. Any conviction, on this account, must take a back seat to the primary conviction, which is that no one should hold any conviction more strongly than the conviction that no conviction is worth holding strongly.

And it is somewhat understandable. Staying so decidedly in the center is the most convenient place because it requires no real action; it requires doing not much more than staying in the middle, passing casual judgment on those convinced that some action or another is necessary. And it has the added virtue of looking wise since, by its own definition, it possesses the only real wisdom, which is that the truth of any issue cannot wholly exist on either the left or the right.

But here’s the thing: While those on the left or the right are obviously beholden to narrative structures that offer views of the world from particular perspectives, those in the center are too. The difference, however, is that those committed to life in the center as an end in itself are the least likely to recognize the debt they owe and the masters they serve.