Thanksgiving

I have just watched the customary pre-Thanksgiving round of television personalities citing the things that they are most thankful for ... good health, family and friends. Of course, I am also very thankful for these gifts ... but, musing further on my life ... one thing that I am also appreciative of is that those peevish complainers who always seem to come out of the woodwork to destroy with sinister pleasure every tradition that gives our lives comfort ... have not yet sunk Thanksgiving with their nihilistic blitzkriegs.

The Alpha of the Omega

The University of Virginia (UVA) has just suspended fraternities (usually titled with Greek letters) until the beginning of the Spring semester ... see: Breitbart Article for details. (Ironically, UVA was the birthplace of many fraternities.) And, at a faculty meeting at Dartmouth College recently, the vote was 116 to 13 to abolish the Greek system at this Ivy League school ... see: Inside Higher Ed Story. Is this the beginning of the end of the fraternity and sorority systems around the United States?

Reading the tea leaves, one would have to guess that this is the case. Tradition after tradition has fallen at Dartmouth as a genuflection to political correctness. Once Seniors there smoked clay pipes one last time before they ventured into the "wide, wide world" and then broke them on the stump of the Lone Pine as a symbol of their leaving their callow college days behind them. Then some general in the PC police decided that these pipes were "Indian peace pipes" and had to go. So they went. Tradition after tradition has met the dust bin there in much the same way during the last few decades ... all driven by similar misguided motivations ... not to be replaced by any warm-hearted and meaningful surrogates.

What is left? Insipid self-inspection and hyphenated curricula that have created an Inquisition-like frenzy at many colleges which, in turn, now paves the way for remanding fraternities and sororities "to the secular arm." (In Medieval Spain this was an euphemism for being executed.) So we soon will likely have one more legacy of college life that is to be recycled into an empty memory.

TRADITIONAL TRADITIONS

“In olden days a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking, now heavens knows, anything goes.” (Cole Porter)

Recently I wrote a blog on another site (Dartmouth Traditions) about college traditions, their plusses and minuses. This has caused me in turn to think about much of today’s social and political conflicts in these same terms – the push and pull between modernity and traditions. To be specific:

Gay Marriage – a main argument against gay marriage is that it changes the definition of “traditional” marriage (one man, one woman). Therefore, the “modern” view is pro gay marriage. However, I find it most ironic that gay couples often wrap themselves in the age-old marital traditions (a walk down the aisle, a wedding cake, exchanging rings, etc.). This has just a touch of pathos to it.

Radical Islam – it seems that much of bin Laden’s hatred of the West has to do with the creeping modernity with which we seem to have infected the world. Sex, drugs and rock-and-roll would clearly vanish under traditional Sharia rule (the ultimate world goal for Al Qaeda). Women (and I suspect many minorities) would lose centuries of emancipation. And whole populations would resemble Afghanistan ere its recent liberation: one-eye burkas (see BeliefNet), brutal stoning-to-death executions, destruction of centuries old art works, etc. “Civilizations” would clearly become a lot less civil.

Journalism – Ernie Pyle exemplified journalism in the Second World War. David Gregory exemplifies it today. There is a rift between these two styles of reporting as wide as the seas. Is the traditional journalism mold better than the “modern” one? I’ll let you be the judge.

Rap Music – Does anyone really think that out-year reunions of today’s youth will nostalgically involve Gangsta Rap? Modernity is not always indisputably better.

Old Europe – Without traditional garb, food, architecture, etc. Rick Steves would have to find another line of business. The charm of traveling through France, Germany, Spain, etc. is experiencing these delights first hand. Usually, however such vacations do not include a sampling of the local politics … which is far from traditional.

Art Movements – Impressionism, Cubism, Abstract Impressionism, Pop Art, Op Art, etc. Art movements come in quick succession like waves sucking on a money-strewn beach. Which of these movements are “traditional”? Time alone can make this ultimate judgment. But please give me just one opinion … Andy Warhol has done more to trash the progress of art in the twentieth century than the Taliban ever could have.

The lesson here is that everything old is not necessarily good and everything new isn’t necessarily bad. However, once a tradition is establishes, it has an inertia that should not be fooled with carelessly. But changing circumstances can devalue a tradition as well as make a good innovation poisonous. It is only mindless insistence on a style of behavior that seems truly dangerous.