The Faults of Tradition

Tradition is what tells us that change is not acceptable, that there is only one correct way to do things.  It makes us rely on a constant, letting ourselves be affected too much by disturbances.   Being open to breaking tradition would mean more acceptance and a better world as a whole.

Tradition isolates different and makes us think oddly of people and concepts that are new.  It creates zero tolerance for novelties or adjustments that are strange to us.  What is not expected, is not accepted.  Many are forced to hide their markings, and feelings, and differences.  Forced to look and act like all the rest.  But what is a society with one face?  For example, in Madeleine L’Engle’s well-known book A Wrinkle In Time, a whole planet is under the influence of a mind called IT.  Everyone is exactly the same, and no one is isolated from the rest.  Yet, no one is happy, because they are not free to think for themselves.  This is why we need diversity.  Without, we would all be couch potato nobodies with no chance to prove themselves or be successful.

The bigots and communities who are not open-minded are the ones who conform to much to traditional values.  For instance, people who are prejudiced against Jews probably celebrate Christmas.  I am not saying that people who celebrate Christmas are prejudiced (I celebrate Christmas) and I am also not saying that we should diss our favorite holidays.  What I am trying to get across is that everyone should be more accepting of people who have different values and that we should be open to altering tradition.

Although some may say that tradition is an important part of cultures and who we are as people, I must argue that cultures and people are supposed to grow and adapt.  If there was no change, how could there be any advancements or improvements?  In the future, how are we going to accept alien species if people can’t even accept the LGBT community and facial tattoos?