> To be a good ancestor one must assume that good things can be forwarded.
Many of the old ways are being forgotten, and `Grandma's brain` is not so readily picked anymore since people value their Internet & the hive mind of social media more than the wisdom of their elders.
Also the old way of passing down teachings orally, like in the case of Buddhism and some other religions, is declining. Now it has to be perfectly preserved on the Internet so that people can refer back to it.
> Isn't it relatively likely that there are more people learning Buddhism orally now than there ever have been before?
Well I suppose if you mean listening to an audio-book or even reading a book constitutes learning something orally, then you might have a point.
When I say orally I mean passed down from generation to generation via spoken word. Buddhism originally had no scriptures and was passed down by word of mouth until everything was transcribed to texts.
Aw, come on, way to miss the point. Even African American Grandmas were glued to their televisions during the Cuban Missile Crisis. They lived through the Vietnam protests, the 70's oil shock, Nixon's resignation and stagflation, and then saw the Berlin Wall fall in the 80's. As someone born in the 80's, I can only imagine the difference between what they thought and felt during 9/11 compared to me.
They (usually) have something which younger generations will always struggle with (simply by the nature of not being there), which is _perspective_ on which things are important at what scales. That isn't to say they're always (or even usually) right about everything, but their opinion should at least be valued as part of the conversation.
Many of the old ways are being forgotten, and `Grandma's brain` is not so readily picked anymore since people value their Internet & the hive mind of social media more than the wisdom of their elders.
Also the old way of passing down teachings orally, like in the case of Buddhism and some other religions, is declining. Now it has to be perfectly preserved on the Internet so that people can refer back to it.