In American society, innovation is respected more than tradition. Our country’s very birth was a negative reaction to long-established institution. The new and the bold are the molders of our lives. As such, we’d rather rage on to the future than look back and potentially miss an opportunity.Europe stands in stark contrast to our faced-paced way of life. There’s more of an effort to preserve. The French, so affronted by the idea of English disfiguring their language, have a whole academy determined to conserve French against invaders.  To expand this observation to the wider European context, most European nations have long and storied traditions that maintain real relevance on their citizens’ everyday lives. The English university system is a great example of this phenomena. It is impressive yes, but it’s mummified in its traditional trappings. Family names still hold great sway and figures like Pushkin, Shakespeare, and Dante are still the be-all-end-all of European literature.It seems to me as if we’ve reached a conundrum. Americans are too quick in their evaluations yet Europeans struggle to let go of the past.  I feel as if to start producing art that can be as lasting as that produced by The Greats, one needs to pay homage to the past but in a way that does not simply regurgitate what they’ve done. We’ve not lost the talent that graced these earlier figures. It’s simply laying dormant, waiting for the appropriate crevasse to spill forth from. I really do believe America has the greater resources to fulfill this. We have the capability to  incorporate the rich tradition of others into our fold without causing us to screech to a halt. We simply have to realize it.