Tradition

{{folklore}}{{sources needed}}{{Cquote|''And who has the right, as master of the house, To have the final word at home? The Papa, the Papa! Tradition.''|||Tevye, ''Fiddler on the Roof''}}

'''Tradition''' is continuing to do that which has always been done, because it has always been done. This can form a sense of continuity with the past and one's community, which is nice, but it can also get in the way of doing what is necessary or useful. "[[Appeal to tradition|We've always done it this way.]]" is a powerful force of [[irrationality]] that holds back progress in many areas. Joseph Lister's pioneering work on antisepsis saved many lives, but would have saved more if the [[medical]] profession hadn't clung so tightly to their traditions of having blood from their various patients on their hands to show that they'd been doing their job — thus cross-contaminating every patient they operated on. [[China]] became the first country to have entrance examinations for its civil service — a good idea at first, but the exam never changed, and promotion could be gained by parroting the correct (and, eventually, centuries out of date) answer. Most [[religion]]s thrive on tradition (often to [[Dogma|a particularly extreme degree]]) as an aspect of comfort, a mark of identity, and a measure of control.

==Tradition today==
[[Image:Pancakes 2.jpg|thumb|right|In Brazil, they have carnivals. In England, we have… ''these''.]]
Today's traditions are no better. Take the day this article was created, for instance. The 24<sup>th</sup> of February was Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras) in 2009. On this, millions of [[Christian]]s celebrate the day before [[Lent]] by having a big party. Even non-[[Christians]] "celebrate" this day, often by eating pancakes (crepes) — piles of fried flour with sugar and lemon on them. Some even go out and ''buy'' the bloody things, thus going against the whole point, which was to use up perishables before the forty days of going without. That's tradition for you. A great servant but a terrible master.

The [[Internet]] is beginning to show the wealth and weakness of "tradition" by highlighting both individual traditions against other people's traditions ("Wait, you get money in your Free Parking?") as well as [[meme|creating traditions of its own]].

==Tradition and nationalism==
Many "traditions" date only from the 19<sup>th</sup> century; they are either [[Fakelore|outright inventions]], or attempts at re-creation of historical traditions that fell into disuse or were imported from other countries (e.g. the [[Christmas]] {{wpl|Christmas tree|tree|,}} a [[Germany|German]] tradition which became popular in the 18<sup>th</sup> century and spread abroad in the 19<sup>th</sup> century). [[Romanticism|Romanticist]] writers bear a great deal of responsibility for this; {{wpl|Walter Scott}} in particular deserves a lot of blame, with his historical novels, such as ''Ivanhoe'' and ''Rob Roy'', creating such traditionally stereotypical images as the 'knight in shining armour' and the romantic [[Scottish]] bandit. In reality, the modern Scottish kilt was a product of a [[Industrial Revolution|Lancashireman]] {{wpl|History of the kilt|tailoring a smaller, more convenient garment}} for Scottish workers who, [[Irony|after the defeat of the Jacobites]], provided raw materials for [[English]] industries.

The idea that tradition is an invention of nation-states in order to foster the notion that nations are and have been homogeneous is the fault of that eternal rabble-rouser of British [[Marxism]], Eric Hobsbawm.{{fact}}

==See also==
*[[Appeal to tradition]] — a [[logical fallacy]]
*[[Nostalgia]]
*[[Good old days]]

==External links==
*''[http://www.columbia.edu/itc/journalism/stille/Politics%20Fall%202007/readings%20weeks%206-7/Trevor-Roper,%20The%20Highland%20Tradition.pdf The Invention of Tradition]'', Eric Hobsbawm

[[Category:Culture]]
[[Category:Religious terms]]

Categories: Culture, Religious terms