Tradition and Progress
Tradition means a body of beliefs, facts, and usages that is handed down from generation to generation.
An ancient doctrine or belief, an old custom, a popular delusion, an old fable, a family story, a legend etc. belong to the ambit of tradition.
We should follow traditions but we should not follow it blindly. It is essentially unwise to blindly stick to old traditions, for such a move may spell danger. Moreover, the attempt to revamp it may create confusions between the vital and the superfluous or between the real and the sentimental.
In addition, we should not blindly ignore the values of traditions. It is also unwise to presume that a tradition and customs are useless. We should think rationally and try assimilating our traditional values in our modern life. Tradition is not opposed to any change in the prevailing sense of values. However, this does not imply that we should return to certain conditions of the bygone timers when things remained preserved perpetually.
Progress is the fundamental truth lying enshrined in the story of man’s civilization. The dynamism in man’s life finds itself reflected in progress.
Man’s life on earth is moving through beauty to still higher beauty, and the highest beauty shall never be created. In addition, man’s onward march from progress to greater progress shall continue unhindered towards eternity. According to Shaw, again, ‘Man is moving to the star’.
‘The best picture can never be painted, and the sweetest song can never be sung’ – the essence of this time-honored saying lies in the uninterrupted march of progress through better and still better to reach the best in an infinite future. No force is there to check the acceleration of progress.
Conclusion: The triumph of progress is, indeed, an established reality. The illustrations, made so far about tradition and progress, bring home the truth that there is not and there can never be any contradiction or conflict between them. By denying tradition, progress carries no sense. However, tradition is the inspiring force to offer a momentum to progress in its irresistible onward march.
