Time, Tradition and Progress
An Essay
By Philip C. Young, Pine Grove California
Some countries, some cultures value experience over innovation. Some of these hold tradition in greater esteem over progress. Progress is always a term which can never be applied without some qualification. The term progress would be more innocuous if change were substituted in its place.
Tradition is a term similar to progress in that it must be qualified but tradition is typically perceived as stultifying and a constraint to progress. Tradition however is a term which when examined for it real value and its truer meaning; is worthy of consideration.
In America Tradition is probably the least understood and misperceived concepts within our vocabulary. As a socially relevant axiom it is held in very low esteem by a youth obsessed, progress intensive society. Tradition is avoided in many political speeches today as it has nearly legendary status as a rain maker.
If, however, we decide to examine this word and its meaning objectively, it is quite possible we have lost a valuable tool in which to measure relative progress whenever change is impressed upon us or most likely imposed upon us.
Tradition is both a historical reference point and a time honored way of protecting something of known or perceived value from change. We would not wish to dispense with something with a long standing efficacy however, dispensing with tradition does not sound so bad. It has become excess baggage.
Experience is of great value as is knowledge. Whereas knowledge can be obtained readily and rapidly time constrains the rate at which experience can be gained. Tradition bundles experience and knowledge with efficacy. Maintaining tradition within a culture or society was an act of great assurance guarding against changing something that worked.
Many civilizations developed traditions garnered from hard won experience. As a survival mechanism tradition stood for insurance against all sorts of evils, hardships and one which provided great confidence and assurance against wrong doing.
This has been a long winded discussion about tradition and the point is the inherent impatience of our society and an attitude of change is equivalent to progress; obviously fallout from a technologically ambitious society where technological achievement and societal change are congruous.
Tradition emerged as a socially relevant mechanism for insuring the survivability from one generation to the next and beyond. Cooking is an exceptionally relevant example.
Not long before us foods were less plentiful and were prone to be either spoiled or infested with virulent bacteria and parasites. Sage is anti helminthic or kills worms; mugwort is still used today as an herbal remedy for intestinal worms. Spices afforded some protection as well as by masking the odor or taste of spoiled food especially meat.
There are other traditions, marriage is intended to provide social recognition for the purposes of establishing responsibility of care for any progeny, it also restricts reproductive access to the woman. Infanticide is not confined to animals and a questionable impregnation would introduce a higher mortality rate.
The tradition of marriage provides for punitive measures to be exacted against any that break this legal contract. When resources are scare, communities would find ample rationale to dispose of or limit access to resources to any child not originating from their community.
Tradition provides survival doctrine which may or may not continue being relevant in a changing world. Again wealth is the necessary luxury which enables progress, precedes and many times supersedes tradition.
Issues arise when the more experienced attempt to impose tradition upon the emerging generation and since the original intention behind the tradition is rarely known or even understood; there remain only inflexible arguments which appear demanding.
In reality, cultures and societies become less inclined to investigate the alleged value of tradition and depose of it whenever it appears inconvenient or seems antithetical to the desired change. Thus the wisdom of the ages can become left behind and lost if not documented or maintained in some sense.
Oral traditions of many societies which predated writing are sometimes misjudged or erroneously questioned as to their credibility. The relevance of say, oral traditions among Native Americans, has introduced historians to a wealth of new information previously dismissed as hearsay.
In politics the concept of tradition is, as I have said earlier, is typically avoided as the concept has now been irreversibly associated with antiquated and non progressive ideations.
We would be well advised however to take a step back and to examine some of these “traditions”. The first and best example that can be provided is that for marriage. Birth control, greater rights for women, greater concern and sensitivity for an individual’s comfort and now endemic to our society is the concept that people are not immutable and therefore change.
The traditional reasons for marriage remain the same as before, our attitude has shifted. Whether the continued dissolution of marriage as a long term commitment will have long term negative consequences , neutral or positive consequences we cannot see and will not for generations to come.
Herein lies the peril whenever tradition is abandoned. The very time consuming process empirically assessing information wrought from generations of those who preceded us; disappears whenever we choose progress over tradition.
The wisdom is lost without anyone ever really examining the original reason and as such we lose humanities long standing methods over ones that appear better at that time.
This argument has discounted humanities ability to adapt and reconstruct or create new solutions. This is the luxury of having such a monumental storehouse of information at our literal fingertips.
Herein lays a warning: another tradition has been abandoned and that is one that has required a remedial education. The subjects are those which will assist an individual in their later life beyond childhood and others are those which provided a remedial education in the basic functioning of our legal and political system.
Having abandoned much of this to the greater convenience and greater popularity of promoting children into adulthood by lowering education al standards while completely dismissing the significance of even a remedial exposure to government; long known as civics, may introduce a great crises at some point in the not too distant future.
Progress requires and demands building on an edifice but the building blocks themselves are composed of the achievements of many who came before. Progress requires a relative perspective and this demands a historical assessment prior to change without relative value.
As a society we have begun to disregard this requirement for progress and progress for the sake of progress is as ludicrous as change for the sake of change. We have begun the process of doing just this and change is many times preferred over doing it the “old way”.
There are scientific disciplines which are inherently very conservative. The best example is that of medicine. The dictum proscribed by Hippocrates is still an essential element which each new physician makes an oath of fidelity to: “do no harm”.
Medical progress is one that requires and demands a necessary historical perspective and time and time again we find that new medications have longer term side effects or untoward effects which cause greater harm than good.
This approach and this prescription should be considered as a model for social and political change. Our youth obsessed society dismisses this notion and as the statistical weight of youth over longer lived individuals take effect in the decisions made politically and societally; someone must bear this weight of responsibility as with freedom comes great responsibility.
Our current president represents this youth vote as well as the disenfranchised. The disenfranchised voter is exactly the one in which the changes imposed by progressives have created.
We are facing a slippery slope now of ever increasing change as we flail around trying to find solutions to the problems we have just created.
We must never forget that within tradition lays great wisdom and the combined knowledge paid for by perhaps thousands of lives. Let us not forget this first and if change is needed then first examine the past for wisdom. Too many times we look to a future that becomes more detached from reality because we desire progress.
