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(Archived document, may contain errors)   IDEAS, THINK-TANKS AND GOVERNMENTS Away from the Power Elite, Back to the People by Edwin J. Feulner, Jr. I am going to talk about ideas, think-tanks and governments, but I think you will see that what I am really talking about is change--inno'vation. Not sudden changes, but gradual changes in intellectual discussions, in public polic y deba7tes, in power structures, in governments, and ultimately in the way we are governed. of course, all of this change ultimately depends on ideas, and on the power of ideas.

Far from the madding crowd, in the middle of Michigan’s lake-dotted stump country, a special occasion is taking place in the tiny town of Mecosta. Here, a group of conservatives, including the pre-eminent historian of American conservatism, George Nash, will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Russell Kirk Center today.

By the grace of God and his own talents, Russell Kirk achieved all three goals and provided a raison d’etre for those who reject the modern existential argument that life is without meaning and who joyfully honor the permanent things.

Believing that words are "the essential units on which acivilization rests," The Heritage Foundation has provided a forumfor lectures by public officials, scholars, and policy experts onthe leading issues of the day: a pantheon of the most influentialconservatives in America in the last part of the 20th century andthe first decade of the 21st.

In the mid-1950s, the danger of an ever-expanding state was clear, but conservatives could not agree on an appropriate response, including whether the greater danger lay at home or abroad. The three main branches of conservatism—traditional conservatives appalled by secular mass society, libertarians repelled by the Leviathan state, and ex-Leftists alarmed by international Communism led by the Soviet Union—remained divided. Noting that “The few spasmodic victories conservatives are winning are aimless, uncoordinated, and inconclusive…because many years have gone by since the philosophy...