Elder's provide a stability of culture and knowledge which is both good and bad. It's sometimes joked that science progresses forward one funeral at a time. The

Elder's provide a stability of culture and knowledge which is both good and bad. It's sometimes joked that science progresses forward one funeral at a time. The great luminaires of yesterday are the curmudgeons of today holding back any new competing theories (until they die opening up the floodgates).