ion and bring disorder and even anarchy.
Burke commits this appeal to tradition as if it were an appeal to objective reason, but in fact the use of such words as "disgust" and "horror" to describe "our" reaction to some new form of government which would oust tradition gives away the true intent of his appeal to tradition. He wants an emotional reaction, a response filled with irrational passion, rather than a reaction based on cold analytical reason of the facts. The suggestion Burke makes is that the nation will be thrown into a state akin to that prevailing in unbridled nature. If we abandon reliance on tradition, and if we listen to "the sermons of Old Jewry and the after-dinner toasts of the Revolution Society" (18), we will soon be led by such radical anti-tradition groups which will result in our sinking into chaos. He appeals to the "inheritance from our forefathers" (18) in order to make us feel guilty and indebted to those who died to found the nation.
Alexis de Tocqueville, in sections from Democracy in America, argues that the basis of American soc
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