Another Thanksgiving means another meeting with the family and another analysis of the nature of tradition. Clearly, traditions are by nature anachronisms; practices that began generally for the purpose of safety or survival but endure even when that need is removed because of the general momentum of social thought (see the theory I proposed about society being a neural net). However, this predicts the attitude of society to tradition; on the individual level, it is still something that requires empirical observation rather than an abstract theory.

It is interesting to observe how, at least in my family, tradition is a fiercely guarded aspect of individual social identity. To threaten one’s traditions is to threaten one’s self, therefore objective analysis (as if such a thing existed!) becomes absolutely impossible. To even suggest that one examine one’s traditions invites debate.

Now, I should point out that it isn’t Thanksgiving itself that I’m speaking of here. A day of companionship, reflection, and thanks is a welcome thing in almost any social framework; there certainly aren’t enough other days designated for this purpose. It’s simply the lack of “objective” reasoning being applied to tradition in general that is appalling. It represents a method by which one’s society/community can dictate one’s behavior; like all such methods, blindly following without applying one’s own reasoning as a filter deprives one of an individual identity. In essence, it coerces the individual to the ends of the society.

This is one of facets of the constraint function acting upon the social optimization process.