At one point in the movie "Metropolitan," a few characters are debating whether or not to play a game in which the players must answer any question they are asked no matter how embarrassing or how revealing the answer. Audrey Rouget, one of the film's protagonists, sensibly objects to the game, arguing that there are good reasons why people don't go around telling others their most intimate thoughts. Nonetheless, the others are unable to see how the truth could ever hurt anyone. "You don't have to," Audrey responds. "Other people did, that's how it became a convention people saw the harm that excessive candor can do."
Audrey's defense of convention stems from her realization that one's intellect is limited. It is therefore wiser to depend upon convention the product of centuries of experience and reflection by countless individuals rather than one's own fallible intellect. How is this movie character's opinion relevant to our lives at Dartmouth? In his lecture last Friday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg derided those who rely on convention, stating one of his most important "habits of the mind" is that he never trusts received wisdom. I would argue that this is truly a flawed philosophy, and that in general, it is advice that we ought not take.
In his lecture, Bloomberg focused mainly on his philosophy in politics, management and leadership. It is in these areas especially that he argued that we need innovators who reject the ill-informed beliefs of our predecessors and come up with bold, new solutions to the world's problems. Even on this level, I find his advice problematic. It is true, of course, that in history there have been great men and women who have scorned the beliefs of all around them, and successfully taken it upon themselves to revolutionize politics, industry or whatever else. The problem, however, is that these people were geniuses, and most individuals even most Dartmouth students are not geniuses. And for every true genius whose unconventional ways saved the day, there are millions of others (myself included) of average intellect who, if they attempted a radical break from tradition, would find that they have not improved their environment, but in fact made it worse. The chances that unconventional behavior will pay off in the end are slim, and by telling us that the high risks associated with breaking from convention will always turn out in our favor, Bloomberg just provided us with false hope.
But the true danger I see in Bloomberg's advice is that assaults on convention almost never stop at the professional level. Rather, the erosion of convention inevitably seeps into our personal lives into our mores and manners. We have come to believe that we should throw out the guidebook and signposts that were so laboriously constructed by those who came before us, and tread upon unknown ground with nobody but ourselves to rely on. Are we really supposed to walk through life without a map, to face blindly the bewilderment and confusion in the search of the best way to live? Although there may be some who can live this way, most people will not find happiness if they chose to defy convention.
Of course, the ultimate flaw in Bloomberg's logic is its irony. Nowadays, it is commonplace to praise those who challenge convention. That is to say, it has become conventional to be unconventional. The difference between those who defy convention, like Bloomberg, and those who defend it, however, is the knowledge base each draws from. Those who reject convention rely mainly on contemporary ideas with little regard for those of previous generations. In contrast, those who adhere to convention draw from the findings of previous generations, who collectively have much more experience with life than we do.
As the English writer G.K. Chesterton said, "Tradition is just the democracy of the dead." It makes much more sense to me to lead our lives based on tradition and convention which is nothing more than the aggregate intelligence of the human race past and present than to fall into the trap set by those who, flattering your pride, tell you to go it alone. In "Metropolitan," when one of the characters was emotionally crushed by a truth revealed during the game, Audrey's friends found out that disregarding convention can indeed cause people real pain. Thus, if we want to avoid making the same mistakes as our forefathers (and experiencing the attendant suffering), it might be a wise idea to heed convention.
