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Traditional cultures are appealing to us because they form coherent systems of meaning. This is because rulers traditionally ruled THROUGH such systems of meaning.
It’s notable that people in the modern world find traditional cultures appealing even when they’re completely alien. This is because their artifacts, dress, rituals, rules of conduct, arts, etc, form a coherent, aesthetically-pleasing whole, something we’re now deprived of.
Traditional culture was coherent because it was designed for a purpose. Everything was marked with meaning in support of a social system with specific roles, relationships, norms, and institutions. This was only possible because there was a specific conception of the good.
Traditional government ruled by establishing a coherent system of meaning. People were supplied with a social calculus of roles, relationships, etc, for local decision-making, enforced by everything in their environment: speech, dress, architecture, art, music.
In the modern liberal world, government influences culture indirectly by establishing rules of competition for institutions (commercial and non-profit) which then produce culture. These institutions are unable to produce coherent outcomes and so produce a superficial culture.
Modern culture has a highly-stereotyped superficiality, since it is devoid of purpose. It can only engage in endless references to earlier epochs (traditional or modern), transgression, or futile attempts to finally ‘overcome’ tradition.
It’s important to separate out the source of what makes traditional culture appealing - purpose, due to its role in organizing society - from any particular tradition to see that such a culture not incompatible with a high-tech, industrialized society. The two can be reconciled.
