Normal (and sets of standards, customs, etc.) can be considered a baseline. It ought to be recognized because it's a large part of the way the world works, but it doesn't necessarily need to be followed.
Building up traditions is fine and saves us some thinkin' power that we can use elsewhere--imagine if we had to reexamine everything every moment of the day--but we should also figure out better ways to do things, to live our lives, to enhance our daily routines, to navigate the world, and so on.
I'd say--learn 'the rules,' then create better ones.
If we establish a new, better 'normal' by pushing the envelope and subverting the current normal, then we've done some damn fine service.