It turns out I do my best thinking when watching TV. I think there is something about reflecting on pop culture that allows me to frame my thoughts against a backdrop of what is and what is perceived. Today I was watching Royal Pains while cobbling together a draft for a Shadowrun project. The combination seems unlinked, but both were focused on the idea of tradition. It made me think about tradition, the talisblog, and why we continue to due things in certain ways.
When I was a sociology student I heard a professor remark, “Tradition is what makes us human.” Even then I was floored by the inaccuracy of the statement. Animals have traditions and routine that are even more engrained than our own. My dog for one goes to the bathroom in the same handful of places in the same routine every day. This is his tradition. He is not human. I don’t see how what he does is any different then gathering at a church for a wedding or lighting the christmas tree. These traditions are steeped in history and memory. They are talismans built to ward off the idea of chaos. Like the church, they exist to maintain social order, but I argue that social disorder is in fact what makes us human. The ability to break from tradition and to form counter-traditional arguments is what separates us from the other animals of the earth.
Nearly every kids film about animals is about this core concept. The animals, steeped in tradition and routine (yes, there are subtle differences that I will not have time to discuss) are faced with an individual who wants to break from tradition. This is either the protagonist and the antagonist and the plot itself shapes around the changes that take place as a result of the break from tradition. The beauty of this structure is that it realizes the core concept of humanity. It teaches our youth that they can in fact break from tradition to forge their own way. This is done in front of parents who, in every other instance, are quick to say ‘do as you are told’.
I think tradition is important, not because it makes us human, but it makes us a society. All society is formed on tradition, and though new traditions are born and old ones are modified, tradition remains the thread that holds us together.