“Tradition” is defined as a belief, custom or practice that is passed on from one generation to the next.
Tradition prescribes certain rules for living.
The simplest of these concern interactions between mother and child.
A mother teaches a child to say “please” and “thank you,” for example. Tradition becomes more complex as it is incorporated into laws and religion.
Where there are rules, there is a need for a certain amount of freedom.
The amount, however, is debatable. Some say “rules are meant to be broken,” while others maintain that rules are meant to keep order.
No matter where you stand, it is safe to say that rules have their importance in society, meaning that freedom does too.
Social change is necessary for innovation to occur and for a society to grow.
The problem that is emerging, however, is that the importance of tradition in society is downplayed.
It is as if we are reverting to archaic times, moving to an extreme: the extreme where freedom rules.
Tradition is now being affiliated with negative connotations. It has become old-fashioned to follow rules and in some cases even to have them.
With today’s generation, it is all about absolute freedom; freedom to do whatever you want whenever you want, without caring about who it affects or what the consequences are.
We have taken liberalism and freedom to a whole new level.
This over-indulgence is seeping into our legal, moral and educations systems, our places of work and our homes.
Laws are being interpreted frivolously, depending on the judges’ moral views.
It has become difficult to distinguish between right and wrong.
It doesn’t matter what you do outside the rules, as long as your actions can be justified.
Moral standards are based on how much worse a particular situation could have been.
It is okay for students to disrespect their elders, for example, because it could have been worse. At least they are not killing them, right?
Are we accepting this level of absurdity in our society just to able to say that we are free? Is it really “freedom” anymore or just a lack of rules?
Freedom is just as important as having rules. Freedom provides the “wriggle room” that allows for a different, better way of doing something.
Business folks like to call this idea “efficiency.” It allows for innovations in all areas, allowing a society to grow and advance.
In technology, when Mark Zuckerberg took a different route, inventing Facebook, he steered away from conventional methods of doing things.
I am sure he broke a few technology or software development rules.
It was because of the freedom he had that his and other businesses, organizations and individuals have benefited. We all enjoy Facebook.
A lack of freedom can be just as bad as a lack of rules. The two work hand in hand, so why would we let go of rules to let freedom run wild without a purpose?
An acquaintance of mine summed it up best, stating that what one generation allows in moderation, the next generation will take to the extreme.
This is exactly what is happening today. In our parents’ generation, being half-naked on TV was extreme.
Now, being naked is acceptable as long as you don’t show one or two intimate body parts. It is not difficult to figure out to what level the next generation will take this.
It may seem like the best remedy would be to go back to a time when rules were strict and freedom was a dream. However, once society develops, older solutions can no longer work as well.
The best thing we can do is to hold on to some tradition — the basic ones that are acceptable and uniform despite geographical location, gender, age or race.
By maintaining a benchmark of what is acceptable, we can deal with new problems in light of social change while maintaining order and still being able to grow.
Camilla Chebet can be reached at cchebet@spartans.ut.edu.
Tradition is the practical application of the is/ought fallacy.