Professors Gottfried’s and Ryn’s dialogue on power is significant for a variety of reasons. When two intellectual titans engage in debate over the essence of political legitimacy, the contest in and of itself is intriguing. But more importantly these exchanges provide a unique opportunity to trace the fissures within conservative thought, and anticipate the direction which serious scholarship will take in moving from the realm of theory to the arena of political action. This is not to say that scholars should or need to become politically active. But ideas have consequences, and those consequences may be eventually manifested in political action. I suspect that a protracted continuation of the themes addressed in the Gottfried-Ryn dialogue on power will attract attention from a variety of philosophical, theoretical, and ideological quarters, thereby shaking the foundations upon which political power rests. The purpose of this brief essay is to encourage these two gentlemen to continue their dialogue.
