Dear S,
I’ve
been training (forcing) myself to be rational recently. This Wednesday, when I
was attending English course at school, the teacher told us to discuss: Is
progress always good? Is that important to preserve the tradition? And she
asked me to deliver my opinion to the class.
I
answered: Yes, I think progress is always good, and it is not important to
preserve the tradition. As “preserve” is a verb – to preserve – it refers to an
action and implies one try to keep something from washing out intentionally. I
don’t agree with such act. What should stay would always remain. If things are
really right, they will not vanish. Identities won’t change; equations won’t
change, because they are correct.
Soon,
another classmate had also answered the same question. She (I don’t remember
who exactly she was actually) said something like traditions should be kept and
passed on; they are valuable because they have existed for long; it would be
bad if they fade out, etc.
If
that was a debate, I would surely have won. The other has no logic at all. But
anyway it wasn’t a debate. I bet most people in the classroom would stand on
her side if they had to choose whose answer’s better. The reason is very
simple: mine sounded cold and hers sounded warm.