From an article about modern funeral trends in today's New York Times:



"The ancient rituals are supposed to change and evolve to absorb new needs," Professor Long said. But among white suburban Protestants in particular, and also among some Catholics and less orthodox Jews, he said, "the chain has broken."



"It's not as if old rituals are evolving to absorb new needs," he said. "It's as if we've broken with tradition and people make things up."



Tre poignant. I think that point can apply in a multiplicity of ways in our present society.

In most ways, society has either rejected or devalued most of the traditions that make people human. Families have given way to the quick fix, either through material or outside relationships.

Accelerated by the industrial revolution, individuals looked outside of the family and community structure to find fulfillment. New developments in technology have quickened the pace of this disintegration of traditional human support to its present speed.

Anyway, who knows. I know there was a reason that people abandoned the old ways, whether that was because of social and economic repression or deprivation, or whether it was a more insidious breaking of those traditional ways to create more economic dependence upon systems being reinforced. The corporation was given charter by government by the people for greater rights than the individuals looking for happiness through that produced by the corporations.

I only know that there is a huge deficit being created in human collective consciousness, I hope we can find or remember something real to repair the hole.

Or is it only me? Perhaps. I see the evidence as stacking up otherwise, though.