4 ms·

We should be honest about ageism and what it really is, a yearning for the innocent and spirited world of youth. We look at the young as a foreign land, one tha

We should be honest about ageism and what it really is, a yearning for the innocent and spirited world of youth. We look at the young as a foreign land, one that we have visited and (often) fondly remember. We believe that their foreignness makes them immune to our conventions and imbues them with new perspective. We chase after what we have come to see as exotic and tell ourselves that the young will do the impossible simply because they aren’t familiar enough with the customs of our land to know that it isn’t possible. And sometimes that’s true. Except when it’s not. But, for the true believers, the stories of the many don’t get in the way of the exotic few. It reminds me of the trope, Born Sexy Yesterday, where a (typically male) protagonist encounters an alien or displaced being who is highly attractive and yet extremely naive (i.e. born yesterday). The protagonist is uplifted by them and they serve as their introduction to the world. More often than not, it goes even further. The protagonist is the character’s world. Their reference point for the rest of humanity and they view the mundane protagonist as profound as they don’t know any better, transforming them both in the process. I believe youth plays the same role. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s what we want from the young. To be uplifted, seen as profound and transformed. We want to shape the young so that we can be shaped by them in turn. Someone old can see through this desire even if they see us profound. They have bitten the forbidden fruit of experience and simply know too much to be awed by our mundane inanities. And so we shun them. Because they have better boundaries and are mirrors that remind us of just how mortal we are. If the young are foreign strangers visiting our strange land, the old are our neighbors whom we’ve come to despise. We try to get away from them even though we are them. We all grow old. And yet we all despise ourselves for doing it. Humans are a schizophrenic lot.

auggierose 7y ago
Is that from Game of Thrones, Season 8, Episode 1?
- nwatson 7y ago
  Sounds more like The Fifth Element. (EDIT: BTW, that was a great categorization of a movie sub-genre!)
  - komali2 7y ago
    Certainly Ms. "Multipass" fits the "born sexy yesterday" trope.
- areoform 7y ago
  ?? I hope not given how poorly written the last season is. :p If you have dragons, condemning a race of people to oblivion to stall for time seems like a war crime to me. Not to mention, a waste of the CGI budget. Also, Jon should have pet the damn dog. That was monstrously bad writing. D&D should be tried for that. The poor dog fought the dead and Jon won’t even look at him before kicking him out of his stede. </3
warent 7y ago
I liked all of this up until "They have bitten the forbidden fruit of experience and simply know too much to be awed by our mundane inanities. And so we shun them. Because they have better boundaries and are mirrors that remind us of just how mortal we are ... the old are our neighbors whom we’ve come to despise ... We all grow old. And yet we all despise ourselves for doing it. Humans are a schizophrenic lot." The forbidden fruit of experience? I can be pretty slow when it comes to poetic imagery so I'm not sure what you're saying with that. It seems a stretch to say that people in their advanced years are "shunned" out of self-loathing and fear of our own mortality. Sure, it may be the case for some, but the majority? It's a poetic take on the situation but I suspect ageism is coming from somewhere else. Finally, how does all of this add up to humans being schizophrenic and what do you even mean by that? Is it so odd that people change as they age? Maybe it's just because my body hasn't started breaking down yet but I have no idea where this is coming from and seems to be a bit too dramatic and martyrish--almost even self-gratifying--to be based in reality.
AchieveLife 7y ago
This hasn't been my experience at all as a young person. Really the old/young paradigm is a shallow mask of personality traits and their relative development. As a young person I've encountered older individuals with the motive to - Shape me into their image (duplicating the ego) - Threatened by my existence (ego in survival mode) - Oppress my voice and project what they think I should be (super-ego acting like a child) - Attempt to take advantage of my 'youthful ignorance' (ego with neutral/evil alignment) - Interact with me like an individual and genuinely place interest in the mutual growth (self) I highly value people I run across who fit that last motive.
- jimrhods23 7y ago
  "Oppress my voice and project what they think I should be (super-ego acting like a child)" I'm in my 40s and am managing a team of developers in their 20s. What may sound like oppression many times is a desire to not go down a path to failure that I can see from a mile away, but someone with less experience may not even understand. My way isn't always correct either. If you can back something up with great supporting evidence, you win. I find that many people now don't feel they need to back anything up with evidence and any sort of criticism is seen as oppression. "Interact with me like an individual and genuinely place interest in the mutual growth" I feel like if you don't run into someone who fits this motive, you won't even listen to what they have to say because you feel like you are being oppressed. "Threatened by my existence (ego in survival mode)" You can thank companies that fire the people with experience and hire the youthful and cheap for this.
  - ok_coo 7y ago
    Thinking about myself when I was that age, the biggest problem is that they don't know what they don't know. (myself included) And I'm still there, there's a ton I still don't know but looking back, it was egregious. There is _no_ substitute for experience. That said, it's important to have employees of all ages. I just hope people can find a place to work that emphasizes building good teams instead of cost minimization because it's good to have a balance.

auggierose 7y ago

Is that from Game of Thrones, Season 8, Episode 1?

nwatson 7y ago
Sounds more like The Fifth Element. (EDIT: BTW, that was a great categorization of a movie sub-genre!)
- komali2 7y ago
  Certainly Ms. "Multipass" fits the "born sexy yesterday" trope.
areoform 7y ago
?? I hope not given how poorly written the last season is. :p If you have dragons, condemning a race of people to oblivion to stall for time seems like a war crime to me. Not to mention, a waste of the CGI budget. Also, Jon should have pet the damn dog. That was monstrously bad writing. D&D should be tried for that. The poor dog fought the dead and Jon won’t even look at him before kicking him out of his stede. </3

warent 7y ago

I liked all of this up until "They have bitten the forbidden fruit of experience and simply know too much to be awed by our mundane inanities. And so we shun them. Because they have better boundaries and are mirrors that remind us of just how mortal we are ... the old are our neighbors whom we’ve come to despise ... We all grow old. And yet we all despise ourselves for doing it. Humans are a schizophrenic lot." The forbidden fruit of experience? I can be pretty slow when it comes to poetic imagery so I'm not sure what you're saying with that. It seems a stretch to say that people in their advanced years are "shunned" out of self-loathing and fear of our own mortality. Sure, it may be the case for some, but the majority? It's a poetic take on the situation but I suspect ageism is coming from somewhere else. Finally, how does all of this add up to humans being schizophrenic and what do you even mean by that? Is it so odd that people change as they age? Maybe it's just because my body hasn't started breaking down yet but I have no idea where this is coming from and seems to be a bit too dramatic and martyrish--almost even self-gratifying--to be based in reality.

AchieveLife 7y ago

This hasn't been my experience at all as a young person. Really the old/young paradigm is a shallow mask of personality traits and their relative development. As a young person I've encountered older individuals with the motive to - Shape me into their image (duplicating the ego) - Threatened by my existence (ego in survival mode) - Oppress my voice and project what they think I should be (super-ego acting like a child) - Attempt to take advantage of my 'youthful ignorance' (ego with neutral/evil alignment) - Interact with me like an individual and genuinely place interest in the mutual growth (self) I highly value people I run across who fit that last motive.

jimrhods23 7y ago
"Oppress my voice and project what they think I should be (super-ego acting like a child)" I'm in my 40s and am managing a team of developers in their 20s. What may sound like oppression many times is a desire to not go down a path to failure that I can see from a mile away, but someone with less experience may not even understand. My way isn't always correct either. If you can back something up with great supporting evidence, you win. I find that many people now don't feel they need to back anything up with evidence and any sort of criticism is seen as oppression. "Interact with me like an individual and genuinely place interest in the mutual growth" I feel like if you don't run into someone who fits this motive, you won't even listen to what they have to say because you feel like you are being oppressed. "Threatened by my existence (ego in survival mode)" You can thank companies that fire the people with experience and hire the youthful and cheap for this.
- ok_coo 7y ago
  Thinking about myself when I was that age, the biggest problem is that they don't know what they don't know. (myself included) And I'm still there, there's a ton I still don't know but looking back, it was egregious. There is _no_ substitute for experience. That said, it's important to have employees of all ages. I just hope people can find a place to work that emphasizes building good teams instead of cost minimization because it's good to have a balance.