The society where "elders" were regarded as wells of wisdom probably never existed. Not true. Traditional Asian societies take the other extreme and venerate a

The society where "elders" were regarded as wells of wisdom probably never existed. Not true. Traditional Asian societies take the other extreme and venerate age (probably more than they should, but that's another topic). Hence, you have 90-year-old patriarchs calling shots in family businesses, and middle-aged men whose parents were still alive were traditionally considered still adolescent. Also, not taking care of your parents is a jailable crime in China. In every society but our own, women after 40 were considered very old. I'm a man under 40, so this may not be my fight, but... Fuck. That. Shit. While it is true that middle-aged, unmarried women were once considered undesirable and suspect, that was in societies in which urinating at the dinner table was socially acceptable, childbirth meant a 1-in-25 chance of dying, indoor plumbing didn't exist, and tuberculosis was a death sentence. She should be happy to be alive instead of complaining about young people being young. She's not complaining about young people being young. She's complaining about people (often with no reference to their age) being stupid. Not all young people are stupid.