We are totally at a crossroads of being.
Boomers and Millennials are fighting to be heard on all stages of life. The old must go out and the new must come in. The struggle for power and to be heard is astronomical.
Some things we are trying to be heard on? Which traditions need to become things of the past, of course.
u/stupidrobots asked:
What really needs to go away but still exists only because of "tradition"?
Here were some of the answers.
Doctor Butcher Baker Spy
GiphyNot sure if this happens elsewhere but in the UK, you lose your title as a Doctor when you become a surgeon because historically surgeons were butchers and barbers rather than qualified health professionals.
I know you shouldn't be a doctor if your only goal is to achieve that title but after all those years in medical school and surgical training (which is really long too), losing your title as a doctor for no reason other than history is pretty dumb.
The Capitalism Of Death
The traditional funeral with embalming the corpse and viewing it.
And the zillion dollar industry built around embalming / viewing corpses.
I told my wife to have me incinerated and crushed into a diamond which would be fitted to the hilt of a sword, so I can possess the person holding it.
Repulsive
Bride kidnapping. In Kyrgyzstan, there's a plethora of forced marriages that women don't consent to. If a man wants a woman, he can get a group of his buddies to kidnap her and she's basically forced to marry him. Brutal.
For The Animals
Shark fin soup. Where they cut off the fins of thousands of sharks a year only to discard the shark back into the water to bleed out. The soup is a tradition in parts of Asia.
Why Make Us Do Math
Maybe not "tradition", but not including tax in prices and needing to tip. I was in Australia recently and the price they say is the price you pay. The price seems higher but if you remember that it includes taxes and tip it's actually about the same.
Ewwwwwwww
Before we got married, my wife's mother continued to demand that she wear an apron in the ceremony over her wedding dress. This was to signify her new role as a housewife, and to allow a place for men to put money in exchange for dances. Both of these reasons made both my wife and I feel skeevy. MIL claimed it was a tradition from Poland (whether this is true or not I'm not actually sure) and that it was demanded of us during the wedding. So we just eloped at the courthouse and avoided the drama.
Vulnerability As Strength
The stigma against expressing your feelings (especially if they're negative, and ESPECIALLY if you're a guy) and the idea that seeking help for mental or emotional problems is weakness. This might not be as prominent as it once was, since people have become more aware and accepting of mental health issues, but I have to wonder how much less suffering there would be if people didn't feel like they had to bottle up their feelings all the time and "tough it out".
The Ice Is Thicker Now
That thing at the beginning of the semester where you go around and say something about yourself. It never bothered me too much, but it was clear that half the class was having a panic attack. And, absolutely no one learned anything or "broke any ice."
Literally no point outside making a bunch of people uncomfortable.
Things That Have No Worth
Most of the diamond industry. Especially on engagement and wedding rings. We can produce diamonds in a lab that are indistinguishable from ones that formed underground.
Bye Bye Toxic Family!
GiphyThat family is so important that if they treat you like sh!t you can't cut them out of your life (Since everyone seems to be focused on a quote where literally no one knows the origin instead of the actual belief that needs to 'go away').The belief that 'blood is thicker than water.' No. If your family is toxic, boot them out of your life.
Redditor Mazider wanted to compare notes on how we've all brutalized our bodies, so they asked:
"What is the most insane thing you’ve put your body through?"
Training to run a 3 minute mile almost killed me.
Like, who the H*LL is chasing me?
Wild
Hungry Debra Messing GIF by Will & GraceGiphy"Currently pregnant with my first kid and realizing how wild this stuff is. Organs relocate themselves, stuff starts hurting in places you didn’t know existed."
toxinogen
The Comeback
"I was paralyzed from the waist down due to a spinal cord injury. Doctors said never walking again was a big possibility. 4-6 hours a day over the past 3-4 years were dedicated to rehab (massaging, stretching, and exercises). After the first year I was walking again, but I couldn’t stand up for too long."
"Now I climb, swim, and weight lift! Deadlift is at 180kg, Squat is 155kg, and Front squat 110 all at the BW of 74kg I think it helped that I’m only 25, but the body does amazing things given the time and effort to care for it properly."
someGuy0202
Getting the Boot
"I injured my calf playing basketball. Didn’t have health insurance at the time (god bless the USA), so decided to not go to ER and treat it myself for a bit to see if it gets better. Friends convinced me it was a high ankle sprain, probably. I iced it, took some ibuprofen, got a boot and a cane from the pharmacy, and went to work the next day (I’m a camera operator/dop for tv shows)."
"I got a sports massage on the calf (hurt like hell) and the pain got better in a week or so. Still didn’t have a range of motion and it was swollen and slightly bruised. Kept working."
"My friend was getting married in St Martin and I promised to film his wedding. So I dragged my a** all the way there from Los Angeles and as I was laying on the beach, one of the wedding guests came up to see why I wasn’t swimming. She looked at my leg and immediately said, 'I’m an MRI technician, and you have a ruptured Achilles.'"
"I couldn’t sleep googling it all night. The swelling, the bruising, and the loss of range of motion were all checked out. Dragged my a** back to LA, got officially married to my fiancé, bought health insurance, and went to a doc... yup, completely ruptured my Achilles. 45 days I was shlepping around like that with it untreated. Got surgery, had a brutal recovery, and had to walk down the aisle with a boot and a cane."
50mm-f2
On the Grind
"I was really heavy on my grind for years, taking caffeine pills, Adderall, and drinking coffee all the time... one night it was so bad that I could feel my kidneys throbbing, my back was sore from dehydration... my chest was bumping so hard that it sounded like a drum in my ear. I thought to myself, maybe I should go to the hospital. What I ended up doing was going right back to sleep. To this day, my heart can't take much stress or I get chest pains."
NaiveAd8426
Fractured
New Girl Facepalm GIF by HULUGiphy"Motorcycle accident. Fractured my skull in a couple of places, and burst an eardrum. Was in the hospital for a month, apparently acting like a child, only people I recognized were my mother, cousin, and best friend. Also, couldn't move my left eye because a nerve and/or muscles moving it pinched by the crack under it. They had to put a metal bit to close the gap."
.arnelthelionjr
I need four wheels.
I can do a bike, but motorcycles are a no.
Less Distance
Go Go Go Running GIFGiphy"A 50k run… seriously sucked and made me stop running long distances. I've done marathons before and didn’t think the jump-up would be as big of a deal as it was. Now I stick to 10k and 15k."
JD054
Gotta Go
"Being there for someone caught in addiction. The late-night calls to come take care of them, the countless trips and hours in the hospital. The mood swings and all of it started taking a toll on me physically to the point I started feeling like I was the one using. I had to walk away after realizing there was nothing I could do. She lost her battle a little over a year ago and it tore me up. Still working through it but it’s a daily process. Rip LD and I hope you finally have peace."
Dirty_Boy_Jay
All work/No play
"Working everyday 12+ hours without a day off, for more than a month."
Any_South2605
"This is tougher than most people think, especially if it's high-intensity work in the heat or cold. I do outages every year that are usually at least two weeks, approximately 12-14 hours a day. Some days they hit over 20 hours, it takes its toll after a week or so. Especially if you have a family. I lost 10 lbs in my last outage, stressed as hell trying to oversee a critical path project."
TheSwissRussian
The Worst
"The whole Appalachian trail was pretty tough but so spread out it didn’t seem that bad. Thought long-distance hiking (trail legs) = marathon (running legs)… that was NOT the case. Worst pain ever. Took almost 2 years to enjoy running in any form then I ran a 50-mile ultra marathon a few weeks ago, proper training kept the pain at bay."
forvillage22
Hazards
hazard GIFGiphy"Went into a secure facility to train to do my job as a chem ops specialist in a live environment where nerve gas exposure was a real risk."
jackfaire
Chemicals are always an issue.
How people do jobs near chemicals I'll never know.