Grand Symbols Produce Great Expectations

Why traditions—and icons—matter

The Colosseum, Rome by Abraham Louis Rodolphe Ducros, n.d. (public domain - Metropolitan Museum of Art)

“Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by the accident of death.” — G.K. Chesterton, 1908