The trouble is in deciding which traditions are useless and which are not. Let's take some of your examples: - shaking hands - any form of greeting involving p

The trouble is in deciding which traditions are useless and which are not. Let's take some of your examples: - shaking hands - any form of greeting involving physical contact (hugging) is a lot more powerful than just words - celebrating Christmas - you can have a family reunion any time, or rest on any day, not just Sunday. But do you? Or do you need a pretext and a common free day for everybody and a guarantee that at least one day per week you do not work and nobody can tell you to? - corporate hierarchies, dictatorship - any form of flat organization fails to take timely important decision because nobody can enforce them. Dictators started in Rome, where the fiercely republican senate recognized that during crises they could not unite to do anything and appointed limited time dictators and willingly submitted completely to their decisions. Also take a look at the outcomes of the Arab Spring, did the removal of dictators improve the lives of the people?