Country Club Blues

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting story on the push by generation X and younger aspiring social elites to increase the permissibility and acceptance of denim in the halls of various country clubs. The article speaks to how touchy younger generations are with one marketing consultant claiming that the tradition bound rules that govern many county clubs "is tantamount to "a sign out front saying, 'I hate you' " to them. Have we become so vain, soft, and weak that rules to prohibit denim are a new form of hate? Get the fuck out of here.

The real irony is noted towards the end of the article that while these "young turks" are agitating for a change in the club house, they still firmly believe that the courses should maintain a prohibition on denim lest they become "too muni." (In reference to public and municipal golf courses.) In essence, they want to degrade the traditions in the club house for convenience, yet maintain the same rules the find so disturbing on the actual course. For you Caddyshack fans out there, it is the worst hybrid of Judge Smails and Al Czervik.

As the article notes, if they are interested in their long-term survival, private country clubs should express an adaptability with their rules and try and foster a long term strategy that attracts and grows members that reflect the values and traditions they wish to project. However, they should screen-out members who seems to have under appreciation for tradition and wish to erode the ethos of the club.

Personally, I have no problem with dress codes and think they are refreshing. Especially given how pathetically most people present themselves in public in this modern. I also think a little discipline foisted upon people who voluntarily make an association shows a sign a commitment to an organization. With the exception of family, virtually all associations are voluntary in this day and age. If not wearing denim is too burdensome for some folks, then perhaps they should frequent the municipal golf courses they hold such contempt for.

This just smacks of an aggressive short sighted hypocrisy, laziness, and self-centeredness that speaks very poorly to values of my generation, and those immediately preceding. The future is grim.

Castrating tradition: The pending doom of the bullfight.

The werewolf has never attended a bullfight. It's actually never really appealed to him and he's sure his attendance would be a one-time experience. Based on this parliamentary vote from Catalonia, Spain, he's beginning to think he best get to one. Pronto, Tonto! Before it, too, is banished to the dustbin of history and the no-fun crowd can claim another scalp of western tradition.

Based purely on what I've read over the years, I think Hemingway stated it best when he wrote "Bullfighting is the only art in which the artist is in danger of death and in which the degree of brilliance in the performance is left to the fighter's honor." I would imagine a bull fight to be a devastatingly brutal and nerve-wrecking exercise. That's the perverse fascination of the whole arrangement. A bullfighting pit is one of the few arenas where man, for all his mastery of technology and progress, elects to face a larger, meaner, faster, and determined opponent that can very easily kill him. I can't think of another sport where the cost of losing is death or severe physical maiming. In essence, everything is on the line. Additionally, beyond the notion of trying to live through the ordeal, the matador must be graceful and elegant in dispatching the ferocious bull. Should the matador dispatch the bull in a manner deemed dishonorable, his reputation is tainted, and perhaps death was the better option in the pit. That is the inherent appeal of bullfighting. It connects honor, tradition, courage, to the risk of death. These are all things that the mandarins in the no-fun crowd are rapidly trying to eliminate.

Tradition isn't always pretty or fully understandable. But it reminds us of the past and from where we came. It keeps us grounded and provides a perspective. Progress comes as a price, and certain traditions, like slavery, are ugly and need to be purged. But the sign of enlightened progress is how tolerant it can be of certain traditions that connect more directly to notions and concepts of yore. I'd like to think that a tolerant and enlightened progress would recognize that bullfighting may have a shrinking audience, and understand that saving a few bulls and matadors annually, doesn't outweigh disconnecting your population and denying them the right to explore their heritage on their terms. If bullfighting is meant to die, let old age and irrelevance claim it.

I may be typing beyond my weight-class here, but I can't help thinking that something deeply important is lost when traditions are snuffed out to indulge the whims of those who lack the tolerance or perspective to appreciate them.