Monday 22 October 2018

The arrogance of age must submit to be taught by youth. Edmund Burke



Old people are quick to complain about the millennials but I want to take a moment to defend them.
I think they are smarter than we were, but their ideas often confront our established views.
They are definitely kinder that we were, and less conservative in their values.
While they do things differently to us in their youth, I do think they are the great hope in reversing the damage we've done.
It's no accident that the #MeToo movement has been supported by the young, while the old fight it.
It's no accident the LBGTQI rights are moving forward with a speed like never before.
It's no accident the voices for change seem to get louder and louder as the young jump on board the cause and actively spread the views.

I have spoken before how therapeutic I find music (and dancing) and so I headed to Kygo on Friday, but solo as none of my friends were keen. I found my spot on the floor and merrily danced away. At one point, a tall guy pushed his way in front of me. While we'd not spoken all night, the young (little) guy who had danced next to me the whole time, looked at me concerned and gestured 'do you want me to say something?'. I smiled no, and pushed my way back to my spot, assuming the little guy might get beaten up by the older 'roid-addled meathead, but a little bespectacled old lady would not.

I know I am old, and I know that I don't fit in at these concerts, but I love the music and I've since discovered there is always someone who will dance with me or talk to me. I know they see me as a strange old lady but the fact that they make me feel comfortable is kind. A kindness I may not have offered in MY youth.




If you have seen that hideous tirade on the RyanAir flight, it is an old man creating the racist scene, and when the attendant seems out of his depth, it is the young man in the seat behind them that stands up and intervenes. I presume from the voice that the person filming is also quite young. These people didn't need to get involved, it wasn't their concern, but they chose to defend the woman and right a wrong.

As I sit at dinners and listen to conservative views criticising the foibles of the young, I have to wonder how I ever got to be so old. Why do we stop evolving and stagnate as we age? There is an Irish proverb, 'Praise youth and it will prosper'. Perhaps we need to focus on what they do better than us, instead of what they do differently? Maybe our way was not the right way in the first place?


Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young.
J.K Rowling


12 comments:

  1. I work with young people and I think they are amazing. They have a different outlook and so they should. We all have one thing in common and that is to try to enjoy the life www have.

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  2. ...well Lydia, this music will have to grow on me! Stay happy and dance you nights away.

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  3. I agree so much with this. Young people give me hope that they will actually save the planet and humanity.

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  4. I think it's great that you went!

    I agree about the young. I don't know where the cut off is. I think the students I have coming in are not "Millennials". Millennials started in 1981 according to Google. I was born in 1976. I'm almost a Millennial. I've heard 18, 19 and 20 year olds called all different things. One I liked was "i now". Because they have had the i phone, i mac, and have always had research at their fingertips. I don't think that's really the name for them though.

    They are smart for the most part, but in different ways than you are smart. They love to be accepted, and to accept others. They are great with looking things up! They are not so great at hands on things. For the most part art, shop, and home economics are being taken out of their core classes. That's not to say that they couldn't be good at those things though! They have potential, for sure!

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    1. Home ec is still a core class here - at least until year 9, then it's an elective. But it's Food tech, but pretty much same, same....

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  5. I love that J K Rowling quote - it's a cracker!

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  6. as a teacher of skills based subjects I think kids havent changed much. The world has around them, but they havent #StayClassyMama

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  7. This is actually really nice to read, I was born in '84, I'm technically a millennial. I work hard, have a child, a husband a mortgage. I'm kind and I believe in people's right to a hate free life. But yet I'm constantly being told that as a millenial I'm lazy, privileged, a snowflake.So this was really nice to read and means more to me than you could know. #StayClassyMama

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  8. I have a 19 year old step daughter and it often amazed me how much more accepting and kind towards their fellow humans this generation seems to be. There are plenty of exceptions of course, but I saw enough to give me some hope for the future. Hopefully my 7 years old and her friends will be even better. Only way for the world to move forward #dreamteam

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  9. I think it's that common thing where every generation thinks the one after them is terrible, but it's not really true, because if it is, we wouldn't have seen the progress we have today. I can only hope I don't become one of 'those' old people!

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  10. Every generation pours scorn on the next one. I can't wait to see what our children do to prove us wrong! Thanks for linking up with #stayclassymama

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