The word tradition comes from the Latin trans + dare: to hand over or transmit. It refers to the transfer of experiences that are at the foundations of every organized civilization.
Today, however, tradition has become synonymous with something that is old-fashioned and outdated, merely an interesting remnant of the past that needs to be stored away in a museum.
Nevertheless, tradition is a living and multifaceted force that is not only necessary but crucial for the development and survival of human civilization.
Why is tradition important? Let’s look at a few examples.
Parenthood, for example, is not a novelty. Thousands of generations of parents have raised children on this planet, yet today every parent is expected to “reinvent the wheel.”
Opinions on parenting and education vary from person to person, and every few years a new book or method comes out claiming to have the right formula for raising a healthy, successful, and happy child. But behind all those words, nothing is certain.
Thus, every child is born into a cultural, social, and linguistic environment that has been shaped by countless generations before them.
The parent aims to lead with common sense and generally follows certain scientific opinions with which they identify or simply follow like everyone else.
Trial and error methods are a new style of parenting.
But what happened to the experience of thousands of generations of parents?
Societies have emerged and disappeared, civilizations have reached their peaks and sunk under the waves of time. Yet, every politician today strives to build a society from scratch, with new reforms and revolutions that will last until the next politician comes with their own reforms.
Progress and changes are a new style of leadership because past societies are often portrayed as conservative, primitive, autocratic, and ignorant.
And yet, those are the civilizations that have left us with pyramids and Stonehenge, Plato’s Republic and Roman law, even the words we use today.
Where is the experience of thousands of leaders, politicians, and wise people who have guided human societies since the dawn of humanity?
Every artist today feels the need to express their individuality and rebel against tradition, often abandoning the wisdom of the past. Newly discovered are the laws and meaning of art. Originality and innovation have become the new style of art. And what do we have to show for it? Painted urinals, distorted metal objects, incomprehensible mechanical noise…
Yet, people still feel awe in front of Michelangelo’s David, in front of the statue of the pharaoh in Luxor, and towards the Greek Parthenon, hundreds and thousands of years after their creation.
Where will Duchamp’s Urinal or Pollock’s so-called masterpieces be in a few hundred years?
Where, then, is the experience of thousands of artists and geniuses who passed on the archetype of beauty to generations and generations?
When someone travels from one place to another, it is useful to have a map drawn by individuals who have previously traveled the same path.
This does not mean that people of the past knew everything, nor should we cling to old forms regardless of their usefulness or applicability. But, at the same time, we should not dismiss everything the past holds onto. In order to do the same thing in our own way. The adventurous ones will always discover uncharted paths.
Life is a matter of balance. Neither innovation at any cost, nor preserving the old at any cost, is good. Through intelligent discernment, we can extract what is useful and wise from the past and make it part of our present and future, because what is wise is always wise.
Tradition is like the layers of a pyramid of human civilization, built from bricks of experience. It would be wise to take these experiences as a foundation for the new layers that our generation needs to build.
Otherwise, not only do we belittle the efforts of those who came before us, but we also fail to leave anything valuable for those who will come after us.