Forget left/right. The real dichotomy is between conservative and profligate.

A conservative is not the opposite of a progressive; he is the opposite of a squanderer: one who squanders a cultural heritage, preferring to embrace nothingness. If this sort of person then describes himself as a progressive, it is due to the error to which anyone who blindly believes in any kind of progress is prone: feeling like a pioneer when you are merely a sheep in the flock. The conservative, who is a sceptic, does not believe in idols. He is a sceptic and an ‘apota’, as Prezzolini put it – that is, someone who doesn’t buy into it: neither the fairy tale of a future that is radiant in and of itself, nor the legend of a past that is golden in and of itself. The dichotomy between conservation and dissipation is the real one, indispensable for distinguishing between people and, even more so, their actions; in short, for understanding the meaning of what is happening now. Whereas ‘right’ and ‘left’ express a rhetorical duality, useful only for stirring up the supporters and reassuring the (very numerous) stragglers who mentally still live in the twentieth century.

The conservative seeks to preserve dignity, freedom and a sense of reality. First and foremost, this applies to himself, but also to something greater than himself: his own culture. I could also say ‘identity’, but I prefer ‘culture’, which is a less militant term: the true conservative tends to be apolitical; he finds political parties off-putting and elections repulsive. He is too mature to amuse himself with these paper games. The self-styled conservative, on the other hand, is drawn to politics; he often ends up engaging in it, and this unseemly activity forces him to become ideological and thus to contradict himself, because conservatism is realism. The conservative does not have ready-made solutions up his sleeve and, whilst holding himself in high regard, knows he is not omniscient. But if you do not believe you are always right, how can you engage in politics? Not even a journalist, columnist or commentator can do their job properly unless they are armoured by such a stubborn conviction.

Clearly, I am the true conservative – ‘a very peculiar character’, as one young woman described me. Yet everyone is a conservative, at least to some extent, and even those who are less peculiar, more ‘normal’ than me, are conservative in something fundamental: when it comes to the people and things they love. Perhaps they are not aware of it, or, if they boast of being on the left (being on the left is a boast), they cannot admit it. Nick Cave, the greatest living Australian (there can be some good even down under), has shed light on the point: “I’m not politically conservative. But I’m conservative when it comes to the little things, and I’m not afraid to say so. A conservative is someone who understands the nature of loss because they know it’s very easy to lose something.” It is clear that the conservative is a sentimental soul and that conservatism is a state of mind. As intimate as love, because it is a component of love. If you love someone or something – and I believe it is impossible not to love anything or anyone – you want to cherish that someone or something, keep them close, and not lose them. What’s more: you want them not to be lost, to have their existence extend beyond your own.

This book contains a very modest amount of theory – perhaps even less than the bare minimum – and instead features many practical examples: as a conservative, I far prefer real life to abstractions. The chapters are based on quotations because I believe in memory and in the masters, from every age and place. I do not suffer from an inferiority complex, but only a madman, or a barbaric cultural eraser (three words for ‘vandal’), could scorn the wisdom accumulated over millennia of thought. My sin is not arrogance but rather a vice that borders on its opposite, namely sloth – the notion that all effort is in vain. On this occasion I have managed to overcome it and have written "Il vero conservatore", having realised that a conservative on his own can preserve very little. However much of an unyielding individualist and a visceral misanthrope I may be, I know full well that my culture is not mine alone; it also belongs to the reader: help to save it, and you will save yourself.