The More Days You Live, The More Things You Know | We should respect our elders (as imperfect as they are, young people are generally worse)

submitted by stickdog from (robkhenderson.com)

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[–]weavilsatemyface 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Most old people are just dumbasses who have been dumbasses a lot longer than the average young dumbass.

[–]Maniak🥃😾 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Respecting elders deserving of respect, absolutely. Automatic respect just because of age, just like automatic respect because of any other criteria, fuck no.

The elders who got to their old age by profiting off of other people, stepping all over them, exploiting them, not having any skill or knowledge of their own outside of how to be a psychopathic asshole, elders like those involved in US politics don't deserve respect for being elders. They deserve prison despite their old age, because of all the shit they've done during their miserable lives.

Kissinger's rotting corpse never deserved any respect even when it was rotting while still moving on its own.

Biden's rotting corpse doesn't deserve any respect either.

Only by respecting elders enough to listen to how they made their decisions, including concentrating on where they might have gone wrong, can we hope to do any better than them.

Looking at how and why they made their decisions doesn't require respect. It requires curiosity and critical thinking. Analyzing that is what will tell you whether these particular elders deserve your respect or your spit.

[–]weavilsatemyface 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I won't hear a bad word said about Kissinger! Compared to the Powers That Be we have now, Kissinger was an angel and a genius.

[–]CaelianPost No Toasties 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

I like the sign that says:

Respect your elders. They made it through school without Google or Wikipedia.

[–]3andfro 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

And the current president of the United States is one-hundred and ninety-six years old.

?

"Younger" and "older" aren't defined in this piece, though there is reference to < 30 and > 50 years old. It has some useful points and some uninformative generalizations.

It's a presentation from a 33-year-old to a younger crowd.

[–]stickdog[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Excerpt:

This past Thursday I spoke at The Cambridge Union, the debating society at Cambridge University. The proposition was “This House Would Respect Our Elders.”

Below is a transcript of my speech.

Good evening,

The motion before us contends that we should respect our elders. I align myself with this proposition. Not as a call for uncritical reverence, but rather to acknowledge the limitations of youth and a recognition of the intricacies of the human endeavor that spans generations.

I’m a psychologist, not a sociologist or an economist or a political scientist. I generally tend to focus on empirical research about individuals. In order to form a grounded opinion on the motion, it is essential to understand what a large body of research indicates about the psychological and behavioral differences between young adults and older adults.

Many people believe, for example, that advanced age is accompanied by maturity and wisdom.

This is reflected in official policies that set age thresholds for driving, military service, voting, drinking alcohol, and holding elected office. For example, the minimum age requirement for head of state is 35 in the United States, 40 in South Korea, and 45 in Singapore.

Incidentally, the United Kingdom's minimum age for all elected positions is only 18, an interesting fact that may shed light on why this debate is particularly pertinent in this setting.

Moreover, a brief glance at those in positions of power reveals a skew towards older individuals:

  • The average age of a successful startup founder is 42 years old. The media-driven belief that successful founders are typically very young is untrue.
  • The average British MP is 51 years old
  • The average CEO of a Fortune 100 company is 57 years old
  • The average age at the time of hire among S&P 500 company CEOs is 58 years old
  • The average age of G20 world leaders is 62 years old
  • The average U.S. senator is 64 years old
  • The average member of the House of Lords is 71 years old

And the current president of the United States is one-hundred and ninety-six years old.

...