Tradition - the ongoing debate

16409 Dave Caplan [RMC '88 and one of the most articulate guys to ever wear scarlets] sent me a great note that was so compelling, that I got his OK to post it.

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With greatest respect to you, I have to disagree with Henry Bullen's exaltation of tradition. What I've found is that all too often, "Tradition is the act of making the same mistake twice, on purpose." Sometimes an act of manifest incompetence or dereliction is protected and perpetuated by the mantra of Tradition. Worse yet, Tradition is occasionally invoked to manipulate masses of sheople toward destinations secretly intended to benefit their shepherds at the flock's expense (viz. many examples of organized religion).

I respectfully submit that anything done in the past is not *by that reason alone* a more appropriate present course of action than any other. Given the constancy of human nature, any given tradition most likely originated as an adequate but sub-optimal solution to some problem in its own day; it was likely institutionalized by vested interests who benefited more from its continuation than others realized; and its inherent deficiencies may today be exacerbated by the peculiarities of its now altered context.

In a world of exponentially accelerating change (now with the added bonus of global secondary and subsequent effects), the unquestioning embrace of a tradition can as easily harm as help. Consider as elementary examples: performing close order drill in scarlet uniforms in the face of rifled breech-loading firearms; persistently bombing civilian residences in the face of an indigenous insurgency; considering periodic election of successive autocratic governments to be the full measure of Democracy; becoming a Catholic altar-boy; etc, etc, etc, etc.

Far better, in my view, to subject any proposed course of action to critical scrutiny and thoughtful creative evolution, regardless of a proffered tradition's purported pedigree.

Maybe I just have a problem with "authority" :) Or perhaps I'm intrinsically bound to my own suppressed albatross of a tradition, namely endless evolution - or worse yet, devotion to the ascendancy of reason over emotion. Sigh.

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Anyone out there have an opinion?