Tradition!
Written by Mark Harris on February 8th, 2005Now from time to time you have heard bandied about on the site, the whole neo-con, paleo-con, traditionalist, libertarian debate. Well I am here to lay out just a bit of my political ideology which I would describe as Edmund Burke traditionalist conservatism, quite a mouthful..
“How do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word… tradition”
-Tevye, Fiddler on the Roof
The superb Broadway play, is liberal in its overall orientation but its coverage of the issue of tradition is a little window into an issue that often gets little attention in today’s political debate, only in religious circles does it ever get any coverage (tradition, liturgy, scriptural interpretation, etc). Yet, most of the founding fathers of modern conservatism considered it to be at the heart of what conservative thought stood for.
“Tradition, tradition, without our tradition our life would be as shaky as… as… a fiddler on the roof”
-Tevye
The basic thought is that man can only achieve true progress by standing on the shoulders of his ancestors, and that change needs to take into account the preservation of society and order and the strong heritage of our fore fathers. Change should be slow, measured, and deliberate. Change for changes sake is dangerous, and often causes more damage than good.
The political classes even on the right have long lost view the long view of tradition that Russel Kirk, Edmund Burke, and others viewed as the key to conservatism. Because in the end, politics is not the end nor is it a very effective mean to an ends, rather it is often an ugly necessity.
This is what makes true traditionalist conservatives so queasy about the proposition we can go and enforce democracy among the masses. First, we are wary that democracy really works to begin with, especially without generations of democratic tradition. Moreover, it is a radical and quick change, which again always makes us very concerned, but maybe most importantly the main proponents of the new Bush nation building policy view it as a way to achieve a kind of democratic realism utopia. This democratic utopianism is streaked with the same idealism that in rejecting the fallen nature of man has led to so much pain. Now, I hope I am proven wrong, but I fear I will not be.
Conservatives would often do more good becoming writers, artists, and other professions and having big families and living by conservative principles. In the end, ten children growing up understanding proper conservatism may do more good then a senate seat for six years… something to think about.
8
PM
Mark, you make some great points. Newt Gingrinch’s new book points out that with the large new immigration population coupled with the deplorable standards in social studies in American highschools, we are creating a generation that is ignorant to our nation’s history, values and our system of government. World Magazine had an article http://worldmag.com/subscriber/displayarticle.cfm?id=10252 on The Bush administration’s attempt to change the National Endowment for the Arts (which is another issue in limited gov) to address this issue. Whether you like the NEA or not, the article points out some disturbing statistics, 40 percent of seniors at America’s top 55 colleges do not know that the document establishing the separation of powers in our government is the U.S. Constitution. 51 percent of American high-school students think Germany, Japan, or Italy was an ally of the United States during World War II. How can a generation stand up for something they do not even know?
8
PM
Sorry to get semantical, but the notion of “tradition” being sacred is a double-edged sword. The real question is what is the tradition in America today. Social security is a sacred tradition that we best not temper with.
Capitalism is very untraditional. It levels entire industries and springs up new ones and expects people to adapt. Should we be subsidizing US manufacturing? Tariffs are very traditional.
In terms of the status quo (i.e. tradition) abortion-on-demand was enshrined in the sacred ruling of supreme court.
So in reality the Conservative movement does not want to “conserve” the status quo but march forward on to the right path.
But all due respect to Burke. He wrote a great letter in 1790 about how foolish the French revolution was and how it would end in chaos and anarchy. And, a few thousand heads later, we got a dictator who conquered Europe.
Not all democracies are equal. But how do we expect frogs to know how to vote?
9
PM
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15
AM
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