I've heard it been said by some of my feminist friends that "hur dur, tradition is just obeying dead guys." I guess it's popular media coupled with a consuermistic culture that brought about this adversity towards tradition, but that isn't what tradition is about. Roger Scruton famoulsy quipped that “Conservatism starts from a sentiment that all mature people can readily share: the sentiment that good things are easily destroyed, but not easily created.” But it was only when thinking about Rome did I finally truly understand him.
So I've been thinking a lot lately about Rome because I don't have a life and where I am is still on lockdown lol. I've been thinking about how ironic it is that Rome, who first persecuted the Christians (although the persecutions aren't as frequent as popular consciousness would have us believe, but they were still awfully horrific) became the seat of Christianity. Then I remember the blood of all the martyrs shed in that Holy city, and realize that by their blood they purified the city. The early Christians prayed for the emperor's conversion, and offered their lives. I think of Tertullian, one of the Early Church Fathers of the second century, who once said “the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church.” As a Catholic, I enjoy the fruits of my spirtitual ancestors labour. To dismiss all the lives that have come before me, all the sacrifices that have been made, all the knowledge accumulated, just because some random half baked intellectual screams propagand at my face, is absurd
This doesn't mean that we should remain stagnant as a society. Society should progress in our technology and fighting societal injustices. But in our progress, we should not forget nor disdain the past that has brought us to where we are.
Conservative political theorist Edmund Burke argued that the social contract was "a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born" In Philippine law, we call this "intergenerational responsibility". In Catholicism, we call it the communion of saints