Do you feel you are wiser, or less wise?
Than you were when you were 30? Some of the answers to my previous question caused me to wonder whether it's only me. When I'm among people watching them interact I see the games they're playing with one another they don't even recognize. I see and know their lies, the emptiness of their values, often the heartaches they're setting themselves up for, even though they're strangers at the next table or talking to one another in a grocery line. When I was 40 I easily saw how stupid I'd been at 30 and 20. At 20 I could look back and recognize my self-deception when I thought I was smart at 15. It's easy to understand how any 30 year old thinks anyone younger, or older is mentally challenged. But am I the only one who expects the older me one day to be the best qualified to judge my failings, rather than someone who is 30 today?
Should I really respect someone solely because they older and 'wiser' than me?
yes you should..yes it is disappointing at times but this is what our culture has taught us,to respect the elders( yes,even when they do not ). If you will give respect,you will get respect. The person maybe proud of being wise. Every wise person is..ways are different. The have survived with staunch critics and have experiences,hence they feel themselves as wise and senior.However,this may take time but everybody realises their fault. I am not saying that you should respect the person even if he harms your emotions intentionally but it might be that it is their nature to disregard others,some people have a bitter past and develop the nature of being selfish.And don’t you think this is the only option! Yes you may shout on the person if you lose your temper but this won’t result into anything good. Be good,you should never favour evils because some somebody else is doing so.Think about this..Peace.Be as you have been with them since beginning. We may forget the person who has loved us but not the one who has respected us. :)
Older people often think that their age makes them wiser, but don't older people sometimes fail to understand how much the world has changed since they had the experiences which formed their convictions?
Your question contains at least three fallacies which may reflect your youth and inexperience.First, you seem to generalize, possibly from a few experiences, that many older people conclude they have become wise as they have aged. This may be true of some, but I would like to see the evidence it is true for many. For most people, the process of aging reveals how much they don’t know, have yet to learn and how many other people are in fact wiser than they.Secondly, older people are acutely aware of how much the world has changed during their lifetimes. They may not appreciate all of these changes, they may rail against some of them, but they assuredly know they live in a different world than the one which existed when they were younger.Finally, your third premise suggests that a person’s convictions (do you mean wisdom?) are solely formed by their early experiences. Again, most people I know who have survived to achieve the status of “old” are people who continue to learn, to grow and yes, to change their views of the world.There is a paradigm which rather nicely portrays the relationships between data, the observations which come from the world around us, information, the ways in which we organize data to answer newspaper types of questions (e.g. who, what, when, where), knowledge, the conclusions we draw from our organized data which begin to give us some predictive capacities (how), and wisdom, the understanding of knowledge which can lead to good decisions (why).Aging does not inevitable lead us through each step of this paradigm. Most of us can organize the data we observe around us into meaningful information, some of us take that information and create knowledge of how our world functions, and a few achieve wisdom, with the insights which allow them to exist and grow in a changing world.However, what aging does contribute is more opportunities to move forward along the paradigm. If older people do make an error, it is that they sometimes forget that once they knew and understood everything, and that it is useful to tolerate the time it takes for younger people to move beyond this stage.
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I'm a sophomore he's a senior but my friends think its a bad idea?
Three of my best friends dated Seniors when they were Sophomores. One of them didn't last that long, one of them lasted 6 months (even after he left for college), and one of them lasted about 2 years. All of the girls were extremely happy, and the relationships were very healthy. The age difference is not a big deal and if he gets you then that's awesome. Date him if it will make you happy, but I don't feel right not warning you first. So, while I've seen perfectly good Sophomore/Senior relationships, there are downsides. Your friends are just looking out for you, and their arguments are valid. Here's some warnings: 1. He's leaving for college next year. Which means, if you guys date and end up really liking eachother, it will hurt so badly when he leaves and there's a good chance you could break up due to the distance or the classic "I don't want to hold myself back" excuse. 2. He's 17 going on 18, and there's a very likely chance that he's either had sex, or wants to desperately. And I don't know how you feel about sex, or having it (especially since you're only 15!!) but there's a good chance that if you start dating, then sex will definitely come into the picture, and you don't want to let yourself be pressured by anyone- even a sweet-talking Senior! Don't let him use you. 3. Your parents might not approve. While 2 years isn't a lot, it can be in high school. Two years when you're young is a whole maturity-level away, and they might not want their little girl (I'm assuming you're a girl, but I'm sorry if you're not and I just offended you!) with a more mature, older boy. Plus, they're worried about the sex issue too! But also, most guys (unless all they're after is sex) don't go for younger girls. However, if you have legitimately meaningful talks and he seems to genuinely understand you, then there's a very good chance that he actually does like you. However, if he's just flirting with you or making sexually-driven comments, then that's what he's after. So, I hope this helps. If he makes you happy, then date him, and show your friends what a great guy he actually is. But hangout with him and let your friends get to know him before you jump into any serious relationship. If they end up liking the guy, you'll earn their support. Same goes for parents!
Are younger people today socially wiser than the older people?
In that way yes. Now that we are more interconnected everyone has to deal with different types of people more. Usually cultural acceptances are unique to each culture such as the Greeks accepting homosexuality. That acceptance however did not spread between cultures because most of those cultures were at war or scared of each other and compensated for that fear with hate. Now that everyone has had to "put up with" the other cultures they are starting to realize that being different is not as bad or scary as older generations thought. This trend has been happening for a while being beaten back down by things like war or the dark ages that inflame tensions. Your parents generation was probably a lot more "socially advanced" as you call it than their parents. Hopefully the trend continues it is good to see.
Are older people wiser than young people?
Living through life makes a person wiser. There are some young people who have lived through unbelievable hardships that make them old far beyond their age.
What is with "Respect for your elders?"?
I think its funny looking over the answers to the question. It seems to me the only people who are religious about this “treat elders with respect” are people who have come off to be very rude with in their defense. I like the Golden Rule (as was pointed out earlier) that you treat people the way you want to be treated. Also, as was pointed out earlier, that doesn’t give you the right to treat people rude right away. Everyone deserves a fair chance at niceness but there is a fine line. Some people were born to be rude; they were raised by rude people therefore they have become quite rude themselves. They’ve never given anyone a chance and they’ve found it easier to be a complete jerk than to be compassionate. Some people acquire that anger with age and confuse anger with wisdom. If you are consecutively rude to someone who is trying to be nice to you, there is a breaking point. Your rudeness will eventually be thrown back into your face. Weather it’s with words or actions. If you want to be treated with respect young or old you’re going to have to give it first. This page is an example. It’s not very fair to get on this page and be a jerk because someone is stating their opinion and it happens to clash with yours. As you get older you acquire wisdom it’s guaranteed. But that does not by any means say that younger people do not have wisdom that reins over yours in different aspects. There are kids who are barley in their teens that are graduating from high school all of the time. There are young adults that have graduated from college with Bachelor degrees in things a lot of people could never imagine. There are eighteen year olds that run businesses of twenty employees or more that bring in thousands of dollars a day and do so better than some adults can. So to say respect your elders is sort of ridiculous in my opinion. You should in fact respect everyone and that should go around in a circle. Just because some people are elder does not mean they are smarter than some people that are younger. People are getting smarter every day; they’re people who try. They are not people who say “I’m older therefore I’m smarter”. I’m sorry this was very long but sometimes things have to be pointed out and explained.