TRADITION
Man has always been shaped to some degree tradition, whether in his personal relations, his economic life, or his capacity as a political animal. As late as the 18th century in the West, most people still ordered their lives (as historian Marc Bloch wrote of medieval man) "on the assump- tion that the only title to perma- nence was that conferred by long usage. Life was ruled by tradition, by group custom." The intellectual up- heavals of the Renaissance and Ref- ormation,...