Book of D: The Lack of Generational Communication

"The lives of the young are so fragile that as their counterparts become aged, the elders reach that pivotal moment in their lives where they unwantedly acquiesce to being absent of knowledge for fear of rejection by the young and less experienced." 

- D.D. '22

The meaning behind that quote, which is mine, thank-you very much, self, is that older people are too often treated as less < than by the younger gens. It's like there is an unwritten rule and date when older folks just run out of time to prove what they know. Once a certain age is reached in adulthood, most of the younger gens tend to think that they know more than everyone older than they are. Never mind that older people did somehow manage to survive living for such a lengthy time.

Living long is no small feat; it requires tenacity and knowledge of some sort. The older person's knowledge might be different from that of a younger person, but it still matters because the older person was able to reach older adulthood by doing something right. Right? The thing is, societal views just stink. We're taught social skills early in life, and one of those lessons is to "respect your elders." But, by the time adolescence brews in, teenagers lose track of the respect they were taught to have and end up thinking they know everything and that their parents (elders) are all stupid. Thankfully, by the time we reach young to middle adulthood, we start realizing that our older gens were right about so many things. But, from where and when do we inherit the audacity to start mistreating the older gens again? Why do we do that? Why do we assume that a person who has managed to live to be older needs to be treated like a child? Why do we assume that older people don't know anything and must succumb to the wiles of a younger person? When does an older person stop trying to prove how smart and strong they are only to be met with disregard and condescension? What is exactly the right age to acquiesce to a younger person's diatribe and questioning of one's ability and knowledge. Do younger people really need to feel so superior that they, knowingly or not, take on the characteristics of a bully only to justify it in the name of love. What disdain and consternation, right?