"What have I to do with the sacredness of traditions, if I live wholly from within?"
This emerson quote put into words what has been my view on tradition for quite some time. I've been bothered by the concept of tradition. It's restrictive, and at many times unnecessary. I'm not saying all tradition is bad, but I do beleive it's largely unnecessary. In my perfect world everyone would create there own life. Is it not a bit selfish to pass down, or in some cases force your ways onto your offspring? If the world was my way, everyone would create their own personal philosophy and way of life.
Using tradition there isn't much room for improvement. Things can be changed here and there, but it largely keeps things the way they are. From a worldly perspective, traditionalism is dangerous as you can't stay the same while the world obstensibly changes. You must attune things to fit the current times.
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Cody-
ReplyDeleteI have never really looked at tradition and what it truely does to a society. I agree with you 100%. sad part is, is that i dont think EVERYONE will have their own personal philosophy when religion is such a huge factor in tradition ya know? But i agree, in order to move forth in the world and in time, we need to start looking at tradition and realizing the unnecessary traditions dont always need to be there.
great post code-meister! (:
Your post really made me think about traditions in a different way. I tend to like tradition in general, but I never really thought about the downside. While some things are fine the way they are, other things really do need improvement and tradition doesn't always leave enough room for that. At first, I thought dagerous was a bit too strong a word to use in relation to traditionalism, but then I decided that it actually makes a lot of sense. Way to bring up a point that many people seldom think about.
ReplyDeleteWow. This is pretty awesome. I agree that if we just stick to tradition and don't even try to accept change, we're going to end up living a life that we're not satisfied with. We could live the way we want to, rather than the way we've been told to. That being said, I don't think tradition is always a bad thing. If the way things have been done fit with the way we want things to be done, then why try to change them? I agree with your concept for the most part--I just don't necessarily think that change is always best.
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