tradition 2

TRADITION 2

No matter how they’ve been vilified, all traditions are grounded in group advancement ( yes, at the sacrifice to individual preferences.  Yet, long term, even those individuals receive more help than harm in relative terms ) and in practical realities.  Traditions which apparently oppress a minority to the enrichment of others are in fact trying to achieve harmonious relations, not achieve a monopoly to enrich one over another ( just laws follow tradition and are thus abided by.  Unjust laws ignore traditional goals while following the outline in the advancement of some over others ).  I’ve used the example of slavery before.  FedGov types who benefit from the fragmentation of cohesive social groups which might pose a challenge to its hegemony paint the South as a bunch of bigots who whipped slaves on a whim and bedded every available female.  Completely ignoring the fact that Black Africans enslaved fellow blacks in the interior then took them to the coast to sell to Whites, usually on a Yankee owned vessel, who profited off the exchange to Southerners who sold their commodities profitably to Northerners and the English ( who gladly took cheap agricultural products whilst playing aghast at the institution which supplied the labor ) which had to be cheap since the factories and banks not controlled by the South insisted on it.  Slavery was only outlawed once it imposed a threat to very expensive industrial investment, and was a reliable institution throughout every civilization and time.  Why?  Partially it was since it provided such cheap labor force ( not having to feed a potential slave through childhood was a vast savings indeed ), but partially it was traditional.  Because a slave is an ex-soldier not killed or an ex-enemy civilian not left to die of starvation.  The model the South presented in Industrial times was not traditional but rather a hybrid of tradition perverted for industrial advantage.

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Marriage for life is decried as slavery for women, a prison for those beaten and abused.  But traditionally it was an arrangement that allowed for continuity of care for both spouses and the children.  It was as much a trap for men as women, if it was a bad bond.  Yes, females might suffer physically, although that was a stereotype most likely not widespread as the male viewpoint usually doesn’t condone that and hence there would have been some social pressure against an abusive husband, not to mention that a reputation as a beater would not avail a man looking for another wife after the first died in childbirth or from disease, regardless of wealth or standing.  But males were beholden to care for a family financially for life, a joy in a good union but hell in a bad one.  If a wife got pregnant by another man, the husband still had to support it- a basis for a lot of traditional suppression of women’s “rights”.  A husband cheating produced no financial hardship on a wife, whereas a wife’s cheating cost a husband two decades of unjustifiable support. 

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Apprenticeships are now sold as child slavery, but not only is that pretty silly ( you are paid in schooling ), it was a tradition that made a lot of sense.  An apprentice didn’t have to pay for school, so being poor wasn’t a handicap for an education ( in contrast to today where being poor means you pay for a career with a lifetime of debt ).  And getting cheap help ( just room and board ) meant a very small business was able to get started and thrive ( as opposed to today where minimum wage laws and etc. assure only the big companies thrive and little ones either crash and burn or assume high lifetime debt- anyone seeing a trend here? ).  It was a win-win with the only losers big government, big corporations and big banks.  Religion has now been sold as a parasitic tradition, but as much as an organized religion profited off a monopoly, there were still benefits in the form of social cohesion.  Yes, enforced conformity.  Just like all customs and tradition.  But cohesion is conformity in good times and survival in bad.

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