Modernity vs Tradition: being a Tree and Building a Bridge

Hi, everyone, Philosophy Thursday is here, so I wrote something 😀

Being among people – both in real life and virtually – I’ve noticed long ago that the topic that leads to the most vehement arguments is… modernity vs tradition. And it doesn’t really matter what the discussion is about; it could be mythology, spirituality, beliefs and religion, sci-fi lovers, book readers, language learners, psychologists, medicine workers… Whatever it is, it is about the conflict between modernity and tradition.

It seems that these different groups of people can’t even communicate or understand each other at all, being torn between two different extremes, never trying to build a bridge where they can meet. Although, in my opinion, living our own life or walking our own path equals this very kind of a bridge.

To be honest, I imagine this tradition vs modernity extreme as a tree. No tree can exist without the roots, and no human can exist without history. History and traditions hold us stable, providing us with safe and proven systems. If we know history, we won’t make the same mistakes again – that is true for many fields. We can build connections to many things thanks to tradition. It’s true for linguistics, history, religion. For instance, knowing the roots of what you believe in, you can connect with your gods better. Being aware of history, you can see how societies and cultures were shaped, blossomed, and died, so you can see the causes and effects that lay at the base of our future development; you pick up on tendencies and you know how they will shape the future (more or less).

When you study linguistics, you usually study an ancient language at some point, connected with your field. It may be Gothic, Latin, Old Slavic—these languages are usually considered “dead.” Students tend to hate it. But later, it turns out that by becoming acquainted with this language, we learn new languages easier or understand them intuitively to a certain extent.

If we practice some traditional form of magic, if we are pagan, or astrologers, it is always better to know the roots because that enriches our practice immensely, and because then we know actually which new tendencies have no worth at all or were created quite recently and were not tested properly. But we can’t reject modernity at all after that. We should thoughtfully combine.

Some people, nonetheless, tend to confine themselves to the traditional path only, but this approach doesn’t allow you to become natural, feeling, creative in these practices. You’ll also deprive it of becoming easier, of integrating it into life. When I decided to become a pagan, I also emphasized tradition at the beginning, but later it became too prison-like for me. My religion is about experiments and embracing new knowledge, anyway, so I decided to follow my heart instead of reason. We can’t value the form over the essence. So I do it my way, not super traditionally, but more spiritually, as I feel. I always preferred and honored the mystics more than the ones that comply with every rule, anyway.

There is no sense in worshiping history, rejecting progress, because then we don’t grow. Tradition doesn’t make things truer, or better, or greater. It makes us wiser though, and shows why we are here. It doesn’t matter if your grandfather was great if you don’t live up to his standards. What matters is who you are now.

There is no sense in making a sacred thing out of modernity either. The tree won’t have leaves or fruits if it has no roots. It will wither and die. What modernity offers us is a manifold of unchecked and unverified approaches, techniques, and ideas, some of which may be useful, but most of which are epatage and waste. Some of them manipulate you if you don’t have enough knowledge to not be easily swayed. Some are made up and fake, or just generally weak and are forgotten and thrown away with years, because they won’t stand the test of time. You can experiment with them a lot, but without history, it will take you much longer to understand what is rubbish and what is not. Every tradition itself is built upon this part of the once modern ideas that didn’t prove to be a pile of total garbage after time.

But, as I said, progress offers us a lot of new ways and possibilities. Today, it facilitates things and lives for us; technology is wonderful, until we treat it as a helper and not as our lord. For instance, now we can exchange our ideas from a distance, meet friends and loved ones, create in different ways, work via the internet, order things, medicine is better, magic is quicker, we can use technology to benefit our self-development. We have more time for ourselves and our passions. We have more freedom—we still have freedom.

Still, you’ll need to land somewhere with time, and you can constantly live up to changes and fulfill people’s expectations. Age will take its toll on you, and you’ll be nostalgic, and less and less progressive with each year. If you didn’t build the bridge, and if you didn’t find your own way, you’ll be like the withered tree branches, broken and carried away.

So let our trees have both roots and branches, and let each of us be a unique kind of tree, and pick and combine from the present and past what suits ourselves on our path. And be true to what we are, never swayed by changing opinions.

Thank you for reading that 🙂

© MarvellousNightmare on Coconut Doesn’t Exist

You can contact me via leomoria93@outlook.com