Law vs. Chaos: Tradition vs. progress
/Continuing on with my exploration of the law vs. chaos alignment axis I have a little bit of a different take. One possible interpretation of law vs. chaos is in terms of attitudes toward tradition or progress.
On the lawful side you could have a very conservative attitude where traditions are valued and change only happens slowly after careful consideration. On the chaotic side you could have a character who feels that most, or perhaps all, traditions have little value anymore and need to be cast aside in the interests of progress. Such an individual could be in favour of rapid technological advancement or exploring new ways to do things, or simply be railing against a rigid culture based on strongly held traditions.
Again, I feel this interpretation adds some excellent meat for a neutral character on this axis. Such a character could still strongly value some traditions but not others. Or, they could feel that progress in some areas is important but not all. Or perhaps they do try to maintain a balance between progress and sticking to the "old ways". For example, take a character who wants to be a craftsman and truly values the traditional methods of the craft but grates against the rigid guild structure that controls who can practice that craft.
The other area I feel this interpretation can really shine is when applied to an entire society or culture. It's fairly common to apply an alignment to an entire culture and this interpretation really lends itself to that. It can allow for a chaotic society that still has some rules or laws, they're simply more likely to be far less and far less rigidly stuck to. This is a society that is not very held up on tradition and doing things a certain way just because they always had been. It could be a society of free-thinkers, artists and inventors, or at least one where those types of people are valued.