The Purpose of Taboos

Which taboos are sacrosanct?

My point was not to suggest a list of taboos specifying which should be maintained and which should be jettisoned. And my real aim was not to complain about the removal of traffic signs per se. But it makes for a good example of this broader thought to do away with societal norms without thinking through the wisdom of doing so. Traffic laws and regulations have been developed by society with over a century of experience in driving cars. They were written and adopted for specific reasons, one of which was to make sure drivers are courteous to one another by not plowing into one another.

If specific signs are more distracting than helpful, then remove the offending signs. But to throw out the whole lot of them is tomfoolery and, as I said, potentially dangerous. The spirit of the old rules might govern traffic flow for a while. But ten years from now, will new drivers who do not have the benefit of learning under the old socially-enforced traffic rules be able to adapt to the new rule-less road?

Which corners stop or yield at a particular intersection? I might feel convicted to stop out of courtesy, but some days I might not. I might be in a hurry. If the guy going through the same intersection adjacent to me is also feeling discourteous, we will crash into each other because we will both be trying to occupy the same space - the middle of the intersection - at the same time. And this is liberating how?

Traffic rules are not societal taboos in the same manner that, say, prohibitions against incest or polygamy are. But the anarchist's goal is the same in each - complete freedom of the individual, no matter the damage done to those around him in the process.

It is these consequences that are so poorly understood. These norms that have been built up over centuries for reasons we no longer understand are being torn down with irresponsible and reckless haste. The separation of church and state took centuries to accomplish, over which time much thinking and theorizing had been attained regarding the benefits and consequences of the separation. What society was doing was well understood.

But the West has largely lost its capacity to engage in ordered, reflective thought. We are five-year olds demanding what we want right now with no regard as to how it will effect others or society at large. In our quest to ensure that minority rights are protected, we must remember the role that societal norms play in making our civilization function. While it might be cute and fun to glibly throw around labels like 'taboo,' doing so does not automatically make them bad or irrelevant.