Reflections on the Revolution in France - Burke

Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France was written to convey an 'anti-enlightenment' view to the public. Burke was a royalist and monarchist and so supported the idea that social order is very important in a society. He was completely against the idea of the French Revolution but he was not anti-revolution as he supported the American Revolution. Burke believed that the French approached the revolution in a way that was going to cause total disruption to the society. I will discuss some of the ideas that comes across in Burke's book on social order and how tradition is a main aspect of maintaining a stable society free from enlightenment and individualistic ideas. 

Social order is described like a tree; the main section and the branches are all connected to each other. Hence the idea that inheritance should only flow through a lineage. Similarly to how the throne is passed onto the eldest. The rights that are entailed from one generation will continue onto the next. For example, if someone's parents were not given the right to vote, then they won't be able to as well. This chain of inheritable lineage is unbreakable - which could be compared to a mortmain; where the ownership of land or real estate cannot be transferred or sold. Burke claims that the French government wants to build on the power of the bourgeoisie. It basically allowed the bourgeoisie to buy into aristocracy, which is completely against this idea of lineage and how it shouldn't be broken. Burke also reveals the truth about the aristocrats and how they get affection from those from the middle and lower class, simply because they 'supposedly' do good for others. 

In order for the social order to stay stabilized and structured, tradition plays an important role in the equation as well. If the tradition of passing the throne or possessions down to the eldest was not kept throughout the centuries of civilization, then there would be no monarchy or the social order would be completely messed up. Burke is acting against democracy because he feels that if people are given free reign to choose their governors and governments, the social order will become unstable. He saw this as an example of how people started to think more individualistically rather than having the mind set that the whole comes before and the small branches (or in this case the person).

The ideas that are conveyed in Burke's book has become an extremely popular text when discussing French society during the French Revolution. As Burke described, the social order is like a tree where everyone within the society is interconnected. A balance has been established through tradition for many years, but when individualistic ideas begin to penetrate the social order, it is not in equilibrium. Tradition is the keystone in this situation and should not be removed or altered in any way to cause disruption. Tradition leads to rights passing on through lineage, which Burke believes, then all contributes to a society that is structured and has complete order.