The preconceived notions of using Westernization as a synonym for progression completely skews Lerner’s “The Grocer and the Chief”. He sees a movement towards entering into modernity as a positive thing for the village; it’s a victory that should be dedicated to the fat old Grocer. What Lerner chooses to ignore was Tosun’s accounts of the villagers being undoubtedly against living outside of Balgat. The new town is no longer Balgat. To me, the modernized version of Balgat lost the essence of tradition that the old villagers respected. Farming used to be the honored profession and money was never spoken about because it violated religious beliefs. By staying in the new city of Balgat, the villagers and Chief broke their promises to never leave their beloved village. Lerner’s article is not the successful tale of an ancient civilization seeking prosperity, but is about brainwashed citizens that lost essential values that shaped their entire lives.
The Chief is the embodiment of tradition throughout the whole article. Sadly, he is also one of the characters that also strays from steadfast truths that were proclaimed early in the article. For example, the Chief wanted his sons to “fight as bravely as we fought and [will] know how to die as my generation did.” It is one of his goals in life that was never accomplished. Now, his kin is soft and completely immersed in western culture. His sons has sought allegiance to the West and in my opinion, abandoned their father. They are more concerned with capitalism than with continuing family customs. With the death of the Chief, the death of old Balgat is soon to come. He is the last figure alive that still has some traditional values. With the bus came the end of tradition.
I certainly processed these accounts in much of the same way–a frustration with the replacement of traditional values and customs with a homogenized Western culture. And while it’s hard to not push back entirely on Lerner’s idolatry of the Grocer, so to is maintaining a net-neutral take on the form of progress depicted in his account, but it might be more fair to do so. Though the loss of tradition will remain irreversible, access to electricity and a supply of pure water is inarguably beneficial from the perspective of an individual’s well-being. Also, in these accounts–though one could attribute it to the Grocer–the flood of “progress” seems to result from efforts coming from many more than one person. Indeed, the power of the large anonymous cast seems greatly unavoidable, so only both its benefits and drawbacks together will complete a full critique of these changes.