section_path: Beliefs and principles/Tradition
section_name: Tradition
paragraph_text: Tradition
  
  Despite the lack of a universal definition, certain themes can be recognised as common across conservative thought. According to Michael Oakeshott:
  
  To be conservative is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the superabundant, the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to utopian bliss.
  
  Such traditionalism may be a reflection of trust in time-tested methods of social organisation, giving 'votes to the dead'. Traditions may also be steeped in a sense of identity.