{"id":174445,"date":"2026-03-07T20:55:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T04:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=174445"},"modified":"2026-03-07T15:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T23:16:10","slug":"when-the-search-for-meaning-leads-to-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=174445","title":{"rendered":"When The Search For Meaning Leads To War"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ross Douthat writes in the NYT<\/a>: <\/p>\n

The best essay<\/a> for understanding right-wing support for Donald Trump\u2019s war against Iran was published in National Review in 2023, at the 20th anniversary of the Iraq invasion. Written by Tanner Greer, a conservative writer and China analyst, it argued that the official populist repudiation of George W. Bush and neoconservatism masked a deep continuity between the Iraq-era conservative mainstream and the Trump-era new right.<\/p>\n

Both the Bush-era hawks and the Trumpian right, Greer suggested, were profoundly concerned with civilizational decadence and how it might be escaped. Both yearned for national purpose, both displayed a \u201cvitalist drive,\u201d both looked for ways to break out of the limited horizons imposed by liberal convention wisdom and post-Cold War consensus.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Core Thesis: Vitalism Over Policy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Greer and Douthat both suggest that the specific justifications for war\u2014whether it was democracy promotion under George W. Bush or civilizational dominance under Trump\u2014are often secondary to a deeper, “vitalist” drive.<\/p>\n

The Problem of Boredom: In the late 1990s, conservative intellectuals like David Brooks and William Buckley lamented a “sterile” and “boring” prosperity. They feared that a focus on markets and material comfort led to national decadence.<\/p>\n

The Search for Manhood: 9\/11 provided an “escape hatch” from this perceived softness. It allowed for the celebration of “manly virtues” and “heroic state action.”<\/p>\n

The Continuity: While the Trump-era right claims to have purged the “neoconservative” stain, Douthat argues they are fueled by the same desire to “create their own reality” through power. The target changed from “rogue states” to the “mullahs,” but the appetite for a friend\/enemy struggle remains identical.<\/p>\n

The Alliance Logic<\/strong><\/p>\n

Douthat functions here as the institutional skeptic. He belongs to a coalition of intellectual and religious conservatives who value stability over revolutionary energy. By invoking the failure of Iraq, he warns that the “based” right is repeating the hubris of the “Bushies” they claim to despise.<\/p>\n

Tanner Greer serves as an anthropological chronicler. He does not necessarily advocate for or against the war in this specific context; instead, he identifies the “emotional engine” driving the movement. He argues that when elites feel enervated by modern life, they look to war to restore meaning.<\/p>\n

Key Differences in Leadership<\/strong><\/p>\n

Douthat offers one note of tempered optimism regarding the “George W. Trump” comparison. He notes a fundamental difference in the symmetry of their leadership styles:<\/p>\n

The Bush Logic: Rigid and doctrinal. The administration believed in a specific theory of Middle Eastern transformation and felt a moral obligation to “finish the mission.”<\/p>\n

The Trump Logic: Flexible and transactional. Trump might demand “unconditional surrender” one morning and seek a deal the next if the stock market dips or the word “quagmire” gains traction.<\/p>\n

Historical Recursion<\/strong><\/p>\n

The essay highlights a generational cycle. Younger right-wing voices, having not experienced the slow collapse of the Iraq intervention, now use the same “we win, they lose” rhetoric that dominated 2002. They view their position as a “new paradigm” of strength, unaware that they are using the same scripts as the previous generation of hawks.<\/p>\n

The broader takeaway is that great powers often seek out conflict not just for strategic reasons, but to solve internal feelings of moral exhaustion. The danger Douthat identifies is that the intoxicating feeling of “returning to history” often blinds a movement to the practical costs of the struggle it invites.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ross Douthat writes in the NYT: The best essay for understanding right-wing support for Donald Trump\u2019s war against Iran was published in National Review in 2023, at the 20th anniversary of the Iraq invasion. Written by Tanner Greer, a conservative … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[183],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-174445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-iran"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=174445"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174495,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174445\/revisions\/174495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=174445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=174445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=174445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}