Traditions and Cultural Evolution

Cultural traditions evolved because they carry a people forward. Too many cultural traditions no longer serve the purpose they once did, but have been carried around like a cross to bear.  We are now splintered, being bogged down, held back, confounded, and controlled. Technology, mobility, and advances in education and available knowledge have rendered very much of our great grandparent's worlds completely foreign to us, so why do we still dust off so many of the same beliefs, traditions, habits that they held in order to continue to tell ourselves nothing has changed, while the world outside is on fire with changes? We might begin to look at these changes with wide open vision, and examine our beliefs, our traditions in the light of this fire, and do what we can to create new understanding. Where once there was trust and belief, we must find new ways of coping. Where once there were rituals fit for a world that is behind us, we need new ways to make sense of the world in which we now live.