The political right often describes itself as the defender of tradition — of the norms, values, and rituals that we cherish, and the communities that sustain them. These two elements are, often correctly, taken as connected. Norms and values cannot be sustained unless they are rooted in stable communities of fellowship. And the community, for its part, is meaningful precisely because of the habits and rituals, the deep sense of mutuality and common values, that it provides its members.

The Right understands that for most people, these phenomena hold great value, and it assiduously presents itself as their proponent. Conversely, the Left is often presented as contemptuous of tradition. In its critique of the status quo, its association with the forces of change, and its defense of individual rights, the Left is taken to be overturning the very “way of life” in which people find meaning. Hence, while the Right is viewed as a defender of the community, the Left is presented as a promoter of an iconoclastic individualism.

There is certainly an element of truth to this description. The Right has indeed sought to uphold important elements of traditional culture; the Left, for its part, does seek to overturn many institutions inherited from the distant past. Socialist anthems often pick up this theme — “The Internationale” talks about remaking the world “from its foundations,” while “Solidarity Forever” gives us the line about making “a new world from the ashes of the old.” But while we can affirm the standard description at a certain level of generality, it probably distorts more than it reveals.