Tradition

Posted on by

Been thinking about tradition. Probably because of all the buzz and chatter on the topic of marriage equality. The phrase “traditional marriage” keeps coming up and I realized I wasn’t sure of the definition of “tradition,” so I looked it up.

A tradition is “a belief or behavior passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past.”

A belief or behavior. Belief/believe are words we use all the time. Again, my mini-amnesia: what is a “belief?” Well, it’s “the psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true.”

See, here’s the thing for me. I just don’t think “belief” is a real thing. Real in the sense the chair I’m sitting in is real (let’s skip the quantum particles thing for now). My belief change all the time. I get new information, what I believe changes. I have an experience, what I believe is affected.

I believed — with all my heart and soul — the world was flat… well, fuck me! Turns out it isn’t and never was. What I believed was wrong. Was always wrong. You get the idea. A belief is just a state of mind. Yikes! I believe that’s a snake at my feet. Uh, no, it’s a piece of rope. Let’s move on.

“…passed down within a group or society.” Because my grandpa believes in Big Foot, my pa believes in Big Foot, and now I believe in Big Foot.” I can’t think of a worse reason to believe something. If something is important, shouldn’t I be able to see and experience it first-hand and decide for myself what I think about it (at that moment in time)?

I’m way off topic. Anybody remember what I was talking about? Oh yeah, tradition.

 

We have had a tradition in the United States that marriage was between a man and a woman. Except for that time and those places where it could be one man and lots of women. It was once traditional for a man to beat his wife if she disobeyed him. And on and on and on.

The question that got me thinking about this is: Why is it acceptable for a man to propose marriage but not okay for a woman to ask a man (yes, I know that sometimes happens)? Well, it’s “traditional.”

I’ve been trying to come up with some traditions that are important to me. Some practice I couldn’t or wouldn’t change. And I’m drawing a blank.

Scott Adams: Knowledge is Health

Posted on by

Scott Adams tells us 50% of second opinions from doctors contradict first opinions? And that 80% of the findings in medical literature are wrong.

“A new company called Metamed offers to be your personal medical researcher. For a fee of $200 per researcher per hour, with a $5K minimum, you can make sure the full force of science is on your side. Metamed analyzes the medical literature and tells you which study results about your condition are reliable and which are not. They assess the value of various diagnostic tests, and create a map of all possible medical correlations. It’s the sort of thing your doctor would love to do for you if he had the resources.”

And those Google glasses everyone’s making fun of?

“I can also imagine a time in which Google Glasses will observe all of your food choices during the day and keep a running record of your nutrition. When you stray from a healthy diet, your glasses might start suggesting a salad. When you don’t exercise all day, the glasses might suggest using the stairs instead of the elevator. For all practical purposes, a human with Google Glasses and a smartphone is already a cyborg. And your future cyborg half will do a better job of keeping your organic parts functioning than you are doing on your own.”

UPDATE: Metamed went out of business in 2015