Most people are oriented around continuing what their parents did, and by extension, what our ancestors did. Traditions. And this is biologically, psychologically, sensibly so.
Traditions were devised and had a direct purpose or point about existing and surviving and understanding our existence in this world. That point was most salient or applicable when traditions were devised. The conditions that make that point salient may continue on for a long time, or may truly be an inherent, unchanging truth of reality and dealing with existing in this reality. But, they may also not be; or might be expressed in much clearer, less misleading terms as new insights and understandings are acquired.
Thus, following traditions is not an absolute necessity. It is easy, and usually sufficient for survival (if not sometimes superfluous to survival). It is easy to continue on unquestioning. But, traditions are 1 given solution, devised in 1 particular situation, from 1 particular viewpoint or set of knowledge — 1 culture living in their 1 landscape at 1 time. Simply because your parents or our ancestors devised a particular solution, doesn’t mean it is absolutely pointing at an eternal truth, and whether pointing at an eternal truth or simply a condition that may be relevant still, it doesn’t mean that tradition (that solution) is the only possible or valid solution to the thing it was a response to.
It is unwise to heedlessly throw out, ignore, or move along from the insights of our ancestors. Our ancestors were sharp, intelligent beings — every bit as much so as we our, as much so as how we view ourselves to be. And many of their insights are likely to be salient in core ways for all time, or in ways we tend to ignore or take for granted now, because they lived directly in a world where their insights and how they acted on them much more directly impacted their immediate survival.
However, there was much they couldn’t know about the world, and about themselves. We have a lot of new information about the world now. We have access to a lot of information at every moment now. We also have proclaimed new ideologies (at the very least, Enlightenment principles that we’ve based our governments, economies, and views of self on).
I often turn and relate the progress of humanity to the maturation process of a single human being — from baby to child to adult.
So, while the actions of a feral child who does survive may have been effective for survival in that instance, it doesn’t mean those actions are the only possible path to surviving or thriving. (Of course, in this regard, it is very problematic to relate early humankind to a child, because they very much were not simply helpless children thrown into the world. They were a particular species either already in a comfy spot that they were built for (“Garden of Eden”, natural state of animals) or very adept at adapting and thriving in the circumstances they found themselves in. But, in some fashion that I don’t want to have to elaborate on and work out right here and now, this metaphor applies mainly to the “mind” of humanity, the “emotional maturity”, “psyche”, or sense of self of humankind and culture…)
Humankind did survive and thrive. And many of the insights into the world they garnered, expressed or encapsulated in traditions, are validly applicable to express the nature of our existence for all time; but, also, many of those insights are not. We no longer are strictly limited now to the level of knowledge about the world and ourselves and immediate survival they were limited to. In that sense, we are now teenagers, maybe young adults. We are sorting many things out, gaining broader perspectives of the world and ourselves, and reviewing the actions and perceptions of ourselves as a child — at least, one is if one is an emotionally responsible and mature human being.
So, we can understand that not all the conclusions we arrived at as children are absolute, or all-encompassing, or necessarily the only way to tackle a problem or deal with a situation. They may, in fact, be quite damaging or limited ways of dealing with a situation — damaging to ourselves, damaging to those we care about in our society, damaging to the world we are part and parcel of and depend on for our existence. That informs us that there are ways we need to change.
A people who can’t recognize that and “grow up” are emotionally and psychologically stunted. Similarly, people and cultures who must adhere strictly to traditions and perpetuate them unchanged and unquestioned are emotionally and psychologically stunted people and cultures. Ideally, they should grow up; else they die and wither.
But, of course, children are pure forces of wanton will and can cause a lot of destruction while throwing fits in the process of being made by parents (or self-realization) to “grow up” and “behave” and do things they “don’t want to do”. There is no parent forcing discipline — not in nature. The only thing that can promote our own maturation is ourself, and the interactions between each other. And those are only promoted in healthy, valid ways, by opening our eyes anew, taking in the world and our survival in its full scope, in light of all we do understand now, and seeing what our survival and existence actually is and actually does depend on. That cannot be accomplished by blind, willful adherence to archaic traditions only.
In the process of refreshing the worldview, it doesn’t mean we need to immediately drop and discard all things we’ve depended on to survive and to understand ourselves and this world we’re in. However, an honest look at our circumstances, and a little internal work sorting out what is actually what, will very quickly reveal a whole lot that is no longer relevant, and can, therefore, be easily ignored and moved along from without fear of society and the universe imploding on us.
But, one must be ever mindful of the child and the damage they can do, when they throw their fits …