Gregory's Server@markarayner This sentiment seems to me to adhere to a modern Western tradition of disparaging one’s ancestors.
Most peoples worldwide show greater respect towards the ways of being and insights of those who have gone before.
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@markarayner As with many things, “tradition” can be positive or negative. I don’t personally regard “tradition” as inherently bad. Likewise, I don’t think anything new _has_ to be good simply because it is new. The other side of the coin is that the “traditional” way of doing something isn’t necessarily the best way, maybe just one way they tried that worked well enough at the time. @JohnDA @markarayner @Jodami @markarayner I don’t believe we need to take an extreme position of disparaging our ancestors (as I felt the original post did) nor worshipping them uncritically. Yet people in the past were less stupid and benighted than some make out. Also, give it time and these “dead people” will be us! I wouldn’t get too smug about the cleverness of the West, either – we are also very effectively destroying the biosphere. I’d say being less narrow-minded may well be helpful to us. |
@JohnDA That is a good point! Our ancestors had lots of wisdom, but maybe "tradition" isn't always the way to think about that?