(Archived document, may contain errors) THE NEOCONSERVATIVES: AN ENDANGERED SPECIES by Russell Kirk There stands before you, ladies and gentlemen, one of the few survivors of the original intrepid band of Neoconservatives. Very early in the 1950s, some of us who declared our belief in the Pe rmanent Tldngs were so denominated by our adversaries; but we did not clasp the epithet to our bosoms as a badge of honor - unlike the people who, a quarter of a century later, pleaded guilty as charged, and gloried in their shame.