After today’s lecture from Dr. Wickman, I got thinking about
how traditions are often reasons why some people are not as willing to be as
explorative as others.
In chapter 69 on page 278, it describes what happens to the
whale after its carcass is let go in the ocean: "When the distance obscuring
the swarming fowls, never the less still shows the whit mass floating in the
sun, and the white spray heaving high against it; straightway the whale’s
unharming corpse, with trembling fingers is set down in the log—shoals, rocks,
and breakers hereabouts: beware! And for years afterwards, perhaps, ships shun
the place; leaping over it as silly sheep leap over a vacuum, because their
leader originally leaped there when a stick was held. There’s your law of
precedents; there’s your utility of traditions; there’s the story of your
obstinate survival of old beliefs never bottomed on the earth, and now not ever
hovering in the air! There’s orthodoxy."
As Dr. Wickman pointed out in class, this relates to
religion. But I would like to postulate that this idea of blind following that
is being suggested is not only pertinent to religion but to technology as well.
People don’t like there to be a lot of changes in their
lives. Throwing changes into a normal and structured life, at least for people
like me, can give a “you-threw-off-my-groove” kind of vibe, and it takes time
to accept the change. We are creatures of habit.
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| Courtesy of Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com, flickr.com |
