Technology shatters tradition; but even though the shattered whole can never be restored, neither do the shards of tradition disappear from the scene; their persistence in music, dress, architecture and habit continues to fire the imagination of the young and provide the distinguishing features of the new, emerging culture; so that in time tradition mutates, merging with and modifying the technology that has invaded it to create a new, synthetic whole.
This post coincides fairly well with my invitation.
I have revisted the topic of my research–my focus is now human rights (freedom of speech) and Moroccan culture. The new survey is available at the following link: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/91515/blogoma-research.
I will still be including many sections of our interview in the write up but I thought this survey would be more palatable for people and the topic would be of more interest.
It should not take you more than 15 minutes. I apologize that the formatting is sometimes bad. I will end the survey on February 16.
Thank you,
Reb
Thanks Reb, I think you made a good choice of change of topic. Political Islam is so passé! ;)
I think, that tradition don’t die, it is just develops, because our life and people also develop and our culture also develops, but tradition cant stay on the same level, when everything is developing.
Blogs, as a technological tool, make it hard to agree with the statement that technology shatters tradition. Just have a glance at salafi blogs, for example.
poètemarocain, do the salafi blogs (and their ideas) represent “tradition” or a kind of bastard modernism? They may think they are going back to the original, pure Islam, but it strikes me as a reaction inspired by the challenges of modernity … just one of many possible mutant forms that tradition may take when pressured to the breaking point by modernity … though I think we would agree there are more fruitful ways that tradition and technology may blend.
Let’s not forget that in years to come, it’s the way we use our current technology that’ll become tradition.
I can imagine people being astonished about how people were using their tech so archaically, for example wire-recharging cellphones each 3 days or laptops each three hours, at a time when humanity will have an electronic device that can stand for a couple of years, or better, get integrated into the body.