Posts tagged "california"
Tradition
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 | Filed under: Douchewords | No Comments
Proposition 8, a horrifyingly backward California initiative which will now enshrine bigotry permanently in the state’s constitution, has passed.
It was, we were told, a measure designed to defend “traditional marriage” - marriage between a man and a woman. Specifically, some argued, to the end of promoting “the family”.
But if Californians really have a desire to “defend traditional marriage”, surely they need to go much further. Divorce, for example - the single biggest force eroding marriage as an institution - should be made illegal. And if marriage is really primarily intended to fuel procreation, then shouldn’t we ban marriage amongst the obese, the infertile, those older than reproductive age, or those who profess no desire to give birth?
Put simply, “tradition” is not a viable defense for continuing the Status Quo. The cultures which, in turn, gave birth to our own had many traditions we now repudiate. Stoning to death, for example.
In its own right, the fact that something is traditional is not a defense of that thing; which is not to say that all traditions are bad. But here’s the thing - those traditions which many of us celebrate - events such as Halloween, Christmas, the ringing in of the New Year, Diwali, Chanukah or Rosh Hashanah - they don’t stand because they are traditions. They stand because they allow us to reaffirm a joy in life; a passing of the seasons; time spent celebrating with friends and family.
We don’t need to assert the “traditional” nature of these things. That they are traditional is entirely incidental to the personal importance each of us assigns to them.
To bring this back to the site’s primary focus, “traditions” do indeed rear their ugly head in the corporate world. Many is the floundering company which has attempted to assert direction by announcing “a renewed focus on our traditional business of (selling widgets/trading dog-food/selling advertising)”.
But as it is in life, so it is in the office. All that “traditional” means is that you’re out of ideas. If selling widgets is a good business to be in, the fact that you’ve been doing it for 10 years changes little. Perhaps it gives you a small experiential edge, but even experienced widget-makers can make crap widgets. And if the widget market has imploded, no amount of nostalgia is going to make your company magically work.
“Tradition” is a hollow rafter from which to hang your flag. A refuge for bigotry, fear and laziness, the word is shorthand for a lack of inspiration and a refusal to embrace progress.
On a day when America finally elected an African American president, thus moving beyond the racism which was once a tradition, it’s a tragedy that its most populous state simultaneously renewed and strengthened a long-lived attachment to bigoted views of sexual orientation.
This election season has been all about progress, and change. So wherever we are tempted to use it, let’s retire this ugly, abused word from our language once and for all.
It can be our newest tradition - to cling only to traditions which don’t need identifying as such.