Tabasco and Tradition

A friend of mine who leans a bit to the Liberal side recently posted a meme along the lines that "Tradition is peer pressure from dead people." Obviously, not a good connotation. I pushed back a bit with the G.K.  Chesterton quote that "Tradition is the democracy of the dead." The truth is somewhere in the middle perhaps, although tradition should be innocent until proven guilty. Give it the benefit of the doubt. Like the old saying, "Before tearing down a fence, find out why it was put up in the first place."

Another element irked me about the peer pressure reference; the presumption that peer pressure is always a negative. Anyone who has worked a few years in a high school knows that positive peer pressure exerts an enormous sway on the attitudes and behaviors of teens. There are many more students than staff and if most of the kids don't support the school, it will suffer. I think the high school where I work, the students and staff have historically been seen as being on the same side. We care about them, they care about us. Maybe that sounds corny but it has made for a very rewarding career. Tradition is a strong positive current and should not be openly derided by hipster type who cackle as they row blithely towards the waterfall.  Screaming "OK, Boomer."  

Let me illustrate another example of tradition:  Tabasco Sauce. Since the 1860's. A lot of modern day hot sauce fans deride Tabasco. It is seen as a stodgy hot sauce that probably was buried with dead Pharaohs in Egypt to spice up the afterlife dishes. But, critics fail to grant that without Tabasco, would the present day hot sauce market be as varied and tasty? We take for granted what came before without realizing that we wouldn't be where we are without it.  Newton said that he stood on the shoulders of giants. 

Also apply this to Starbucks Coffee. I am old enough to remember my mom drinking freeze-dried Taster's  Choice Instant. Starbucks upped to coffee game and only looks antiquated in comparison to what is called "Third-Wave" coffee today. Freeze-dried coffee was an invention that valued convenience over quality and as such deserved to be tossed into the dustbin of history. So, some traditions were wrong turns. 

Same deal with Sam Adams Brewery. U.S. beer, before Boston Lager, was tasteless. And before that, undrinkable. Local breweries like Iron City and Yuengling, etc. were gross. Yuengling made a fortune by eventually making a drinkable beer when it saw how well Sam Adams was doing.  And they put Lager in the name which is hardly elite nomenclature. As most American brew even today is Lager vs. Ale.    

All were epochal changes that broke from tradition yet now have a tradition of their own. So, give tradition the place it deserves. If it needs to be changed, consider the consequences of doing so as best we can. Be humble in the face of history.