#Tradition and the #LindyEffect are descriptive, not prescriptive, observations.
Things stick around for lots of reasons, good and bad — including, but not limited to: coercion, fear, inertia, ossification, taboo, chance, network effects, market failures, sunk costs…
Lots of wrong ideas, unhealthy habits and abhorrent behaviours are “old”.
Old ≠ good.
(#NaturalisticFallacy, you're next)
Why do I trust the literary canon and the classics, then?
* Not just old but considered best by experts (literary critics, historians, artists, philosophers, writers themselves).
* Survived not among a handful of alternatives, but among _millions_ of other books, the vast majority lost and forgotten (ie plenty of variety and competition).
* To an extent, in art “consumed and appreciated by more” correlates with “quality” (by definition, because art should be liked by people).
* Today, definitely not propped by trends, intimidation, inertia, or consumerism (quite the contrary).
