This is something that often disappoints me in people’s assessments of history: the notion that everything can be related back to basic ideas and beliefs recorded thousands of years ago, with no consideration for the actual events that take place in the interim. I agree with Mr. Palmer in that this sort of mis-assessment seems particularly characteristic of conservatives, although I do not have a documented body of evidence to that effect.

Sometimes it’s difficult to avoid concluding that the appeal to the inexplicit knowledge embedded in custom and tradition (a valid concern) is often just an excuse to maintain an unwarranted prejudice.