“Much of the strength of a traditional society lies in the factor that its structure and values are unquestioned – indeed unquestionable. It is only when the status quo has been attacked and disrupted that the need to defend it becomes imperative. The conservative theorist almost inevitably finds himself in a defensive posture, involved in a debate on the relative merits of the old order versus the new, impelled to base his arguments on the assumptions of the innovators. And by engaging in the argument at all, he easily becomes suspect to members of the traditional elite who have always simply assumed the rightness of existing structures and values and their own privileged place in the traditional order.”

▪ Richard Lebrun, Joseph de Maistre: An Intellectual Militant (McGill Queens University Press, 1988) extract from page 124.

SydneyTrads is the web page of the Sydney Traditionalist Forum: an association of young professionals who form part of the Australian independent right (also known as “non-aligned right”).