My Orthodoxy and my orthodoxy...

So someone complained that I don't write any of my own material....

"To describe an obligation as transcendent in my sense is not to endow it with some kind of oppressive force. On the contrary, it is to recognize the spontaneous disposition of people to acknowledge obligations that they never contracted. There are other words that might be used in this context: gratitude, piety, obedience–all of them virtues, and all of them naturally offered to the thing we love.

What I try to make clear in my writings is that, while the left-liberal view of politics is founded in antagonism towards existing things and resentment at power in the hands of others, conservatism is founded in the love of existing things, imperfections included, and a willing acceptance of authority, provided it is not blatantly illegitimate. Hence there is nothing oppressive in the conservative attitude to authority.

It is part of the blindness of the left-wing worldview that it cannot perceive authority but only power. People who think of conservatism as oppressive and dictatorial have some deviant example in mind, such as fascism, or Tsarist autocracy. I would offer in the place of such examples the ordinary life of European and American communities as described by 19th century novelists. In those communities all kinds of people had authority–teachers, pastors, judges, heads of local societies, and so on. But only some of them had power, and almost none of them were either able or willing to oppress their fellows."

~excerpt from "The Joy of Conservatism: An Interview with Roger Scruton" at www.newpantagruel.com

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A devotion to tradition? An intimate familiarity with the foundational 'patristic' thought? A world view based on an understanding of history inherited culture? Sounds like Orthodoxy!

No, but I'm rather obnoxious at finding 'orthodoxy' in conservatism. We don't recreate society every successive generation ex nihilo. We can't really make the assertion that this generation or any future generation "knows better" than all previous ones, without already being grounded in the standards of the culture we live in. That is to say, we only know right and wrong, because we are born into a system that has already taught us so...there can be no "new morality" (paraphrase of CS Lewis). To me, that's at the core of conservativism. Now take all that, throw in the words "Church," and "Tradition" (big T), and a bit about "Jesus," and then we can get some good ole' fashion Orthodoxy going.