The Arrogance of Old Age
Is there a point we reach in life, when we are overtaken by arrogant defence of “The way we’ve always done things”?
Signs we are getting old
Though not normally a big comedy fan, my favourite comedian of all time is Billy Connolly.
The big yin undoubtedly had a big influence on the way I think.
Many of his clips stuck forever in my memory. A particular one was some of his thoughts characterising old people:
- They never apologise after farting, they just carry on like it never happened.
- They always put their tongue out to meet the spoonful or forkful of food they are about to eat, before putting it in their mouth.
- They always make a loud agonising groan when bending down, sitting down, or standing up.
For me, those are amongst the things I made a mental note I would always try to never, ever do.
The Arrogance of Old Age
Another one, my own observation this time, is the arrogance of Old Age.
That is when a person aggressively defends the status quo, based purely on an argument of “That is the way people are, and they will never change”.
Saying it with some resignation, as though one has no power personally to do anything about it is one thing.
But saying it with conviction, ready to attack anyone that dares to try and change it is another.
We never hear younger people saying this, or acting like this.
It is a complete arrogance, for anyone to feel that most of their life has been lived in a particular way, therefore that must be the best way.
And for sure, it is a sign of Old Age.
Staying Young
If we want to stay young, we have to think as the young do.
It is not they who should be learning from us, but rather, we who should be learning from them.
We owe it to them, to do just that
That means we have to be ready to accept, and even to encourage, and welcome changing the way we do things.
Even the bigger things, such as politics.
Face it. Politics as we know it is dead. Superseded, by even bigger things.
Let’s stop trying to resurrect it and move on.
We have to look towards the new science of unlimited resources, and all things that might lead to it, such as blockchain and distributed ledger, because until we do that, we will never have true civilisation.
Instead, humanity is dying. But we can change it. We do have that power.
We have to stop thinking in terms of humans eternally competing to the death over limited resources, and more towards making resources unlimited.
It is our responsibility to do it, to survive as a species.
“The way we’ve always done things” is absolutely not right.
