Ageism Has Always Baffled Me

Chel was the first person to make comments on the "flame-war" that recently popped up on the GW Forum recently. If you'd like to get up to speed on what I'm talking about, you should check out both of those links.

The gist of it is that some of the current staff said, "screw you old people....because you're old!" and then "buy us booze....because you're old!" along with a lot of unfounded assumptions based on their perception of our lofty age and reduced importance. And then some of the ex-staffers replied, saying "now, listen-here, you little whipper-snappers..." It's since been resolved, chalked up to "tongue-in-cheek" that struck a few nerves. Just jokes, no ill-will, everyone can sing "Kumbaya" now. But it got me thinking.

Ageism has always struck me as the stupidest form of discrimination out there (keeping in mind the fact that all discrimination is stupid). Unless something violent or accidental happens to you, you will be old one day. It's going to happen. And one day, you're going to die. The sad thing is, you spend your youth bragging about how indestructible you are and you spend your old age complaining about the rotten kids and how they don't respect their elders. It's a vicious cycle.

So my advice of the day to the young'uns: hug an old person. They were once just like you, even if they might smell kinda different. And to the old'uns: try not to get too upset when the young'uns screw up, because they can and will screw up more often than they'd like to admit. And laughing at them is so much more effective, anyway.

That's it. Sounds like a public service announcement, doesn't it? Don't drink and drive, kids! School is COOL!