WALL OF TEXT: RESPECT FOR OUR ELDERS

 

WALL OF TEXT: RESPECT FOR OUR ELDERS. Every generation complains that children have no respect for their elders. There was a time when we revered the elderly because they have been where we are about to go, and they can teach us how to do well. That hasn’t been true in many, many years. The previous generation’s advice to the young is increasingly obsolete. Useless. Parents are supposed to teach the next generation how to live in their world, but these days parents have no idea how to function in society because it has changed so much from when they were young. I suppose I still resent my parents for teaching me this is how things work and then coming to realize as an adult that none of it is true. Employers do not value loyalty or initiative. Religion is a lie; it disconnected me from reality and left me less able to connect with others. Nobody moves up in a company anymore for working hard and being reliable. Companies are cutting back and outsourcing and automating. They deliberately get rid of their best and their most loyal in favor of workers who are cheaper and easier to replace and don’t remember how good things used to be. College is a scam meant to get kids into debt they cannot escape. If parents no longer have useful information to convey to their children, then what do parents even do? What will replace fatherhood and motherhood? Will technology continue to change faster than society can cope with, or will we reach a point of stability? Some futurists have proposed | alternatives, and they disturb us. Most sci-fi still presents the family unit as intact in the distant future, but will it be? If parents have nothing to teach the young, what is the point of family? What will replace it? Hopefully anything but corporate. If society is to change this much, we should take a vote on who gets to teach the children, and what they are taught. Education should focus on how to navigate our changing reality instead of feeding children myths.