It is often said that one should respect the elderly only because of their age. This is a point which I find really quite interesting. Whilst I accept that experience comes with age and that just because you’re in your twenties does not mean that you know everything I would still like to try a short thought experiment with you.
Take two men. One has lived for fifty years in an upper middle class family, was never very good at school but his parents have passed on the business so there was never an issue. He is married with child to the woman whom it was most socially acceptable and has never questioned his state of affairs.
Now compare this to a younger man, perhaps about 25, who has grown up in wartime soviet Russia. He has learnt survival skills from the age of four having been bombed out of his own home and is now a freedom fighter. His partner is a similar freedom fighter with whom he had a child of passion at the tender age of 17. He has spent the last 10 years trying to overthrow a power unimaginably greater than his own. Despite the fact that he knows the futility of his actions he refuses to give up.
Which man is worthy of greater respect? It would seem that the rules of human society would suggest that the former was the greater man simply in view of his age. However I’d hope you agree with me that this is not the case.
After all, surely experience and character earn respect? Not the number of years one has had the honor of living.
Do you agree? Comments are welcome.
