Image by 12-year-old A.M.
Handed-down information drives a culture. Ideally, this information and the associated habits lead to the flourishing of a society. Better wisdom makes for a better culture which makes for a more successful people. And that’s why so much wisdom has been carefully maintained, memorized, repeated, and written down as long ago as possible. Wisdom is hard-earned and therefore a precious gift to pass on, particularly if one wishes their descendants to thrive and avoid learning the same brutal lessons all over again. You and I may be tempted to think we are much more refined and advanced than our Middle Age ancestors, but are we really? Or are we simply born into a more advanced society, with a huge reservoir of well-established wisdom and information for us to benefit from?
When mothers taught their daughters how to cook and sew and fathers taught their sons how to fight and hunt, they were ensuring their child’s ability to one day have value in the eyes of others as well as to survive. A parent values their child no matter what but that’s not the reality of the world of adulthood. Once we grow up we must somehow earn our keep or forge a path towards independence, where we care for ourselves. There’s no other way. So in history, women who were taught valuable skills were much more likely to be cared for one day and competent, high-value men got to procreate whereas the others did not. Nature deals a harsh blow to all those who don’t meet the minimal usefulness standards of the time. In today’s world, we have intercepted nature’s ways, but the point still stands. For example, parents in recent times have bent over backwards to get their children through college, believing that a degree should help ensure their child’s ability to care for themselves and their family.
Wisdom is created the way water carved out the Grand Canyon many years ago. It takes a long time for a valuable bit of information to be widely accepted and disseminated. Even today, where you can spread an idea around the world in no time, there’s no guarantee your great idea will be understood or treasured in the minds of others. Established wisdom lasts because it has gone through a long and arduous process of acceptance and proven itself over time. Whatever wisdom you can attain in life and then act upon, will make your life better.
Do you know what a gift wisdom is to those without the easy ability to know what to do? There are plenty of people who require lots of respectful guidance and leadership. Otherwise they too often do the wrong thing. This is all of us at some point or other. An effective and successful culture can pass on its wisdom to all in the tribe and everyone benefits. I’m not smart enough to figure out certain things and so I’ve been grateful for those who have passed on wisdom to me. When they also lived virtuously, they inspired my trust and confidence. Thus, I have in plenty of cases, taken their advice and benefited greatly from it. It’s important to remember that not everyone in any group has the same level of competency and intelligence. Those with a bit less ability to problem solve and choose the correct path before them can do quite well in life if they’ve been handed down a good quantity of valuable wisdom to follow. They should be taught some level of critical thinking and how to keep an open mind if possible, but at least they can fully participate in keeping civilization going without undermining it.
One of the most beautiful things about handed-down information is that, even though it’s generally an extremely necessary and positive act to question things, you don’t have to thoroughly understand or first question many pieces of wisdom to benefit from them. You can simply remember that a snake with a particular pattern and distinct eye is venomous and choose to act on that information. And you’ll be better off for it, without having needed any additional experience or intelligence. The only other key thing you’ll need is whatever creates the will to motivate you to follow through on the warning. However, if you’re raised to have been alongside an adult when this snake has appeared, and they successfully averted an attack, then you’d be conditioned to do the same, without much questioning or need for motivation. You’d be acting almost out of pure instinct. If you trust your parent or fellow tribe member, you’re likely not to question too much of their advice.
There’s a crucial element that needs to be present for a culture’s handed-down ways alone is not the answer to all our problems. Every tribe or community needs to have its wisest, smartest, and strongest members be virtuous. Others who can get close do doing the same should try. And those who have the hardest time would ideally follow the leaders who are recognized as the good examples. If leaders become corrupt, immoral, or weak, a civilization will inevitably fail. If you’re an intelligent and capable human specimen, consider your responsibility to virtuously lead others via your example.
I didn’t understand certain advice given to me by my father when I was a teenager. For whatever reason, some of it was immediately stored away on a back shelf in my brain. Over the years, some of the advice has popped up at just the right time it was needed and highly influenced my behavior, leading me to ideal outcomes or resolutions of my problems. What if he had thought that his eye-rolling teenager wouldn’t be interested and shouldn’t be subject to unwanted information and had instead not spoken? I would agree with those who say one shouldn’t talk a teenager’s ear off and instead gain their trust and as well as their ear, but life wisdom is something we must pass on as parents, and better clumsily done than not at all. It is our duty. What was the point of our ancestors gaining and passing critical information on under much more difficult circumstances if we were going to shrug one day and risk the future?
This is the foundation necessary for parents. We must be virtuous examples that inspire following from our children. But we can scale this up to an entire community of people and see that the value of good and longstanding wisdom is greater than gold and those who best exemplify our values are paragons worthy of our attention. Our current society is all too focused on those who shock, entertain, and subvert. Stand against this by doing your best to seek out those who know more than you, who are not hypocrites, who lead stable, wholesome lives, who are consistent, who behave morally, and carefully consider their thoughts and actions.
If and when you have children, be make sure to pass on wisdom, good habits, and above all, your example of wise choices and behaviors. If there is a child who struggles with doing the right thing, any experience and exposure to good sense may save them in the end.