THE BRITS, so valuable for so many reasons, understand a great many truths, one of which is this: Everyone has their place in the world. Alas, the place of conservatives is standing athwart history and yelling stop until, Wile E. Coyote-style, history runs them down, hurtles onward towards the horizon, and leaves them a laughingstock.

Conservatives have lost almost every intellectual fight since Caesar and Brutus took it outside, but what most normal people–and nearly all liberals–don’t realize is that the world needs conservatives. Human beings are made for change, but when change happens too fast, disaster strikes. Just look at the ’70s. Conservatives are the engine governors of intellectual life and without them, the world would be a shambles. Being conservative isn’t glamorous or fun. Liberals get all the good ink and all the credit for changing the world and all the parties at the Playboy mansion; conservatives get to keep the wheels from falling off the cart and serve as the punchline for jokes in the New Yorker.