Does it seem like our society has gone awry, from history's tendency to revere age and wisdom, to now celebrating youth and ignorance? Craig Ferguson has figured out why...

Lucent

"In other cultures, elders are highly respected!" In those other cultures, you also died if you were a moron. It used to be an accomplishment to survive into old age. Raids, childbirth, wild animal attacks, betrayl, lack of allies, even lapses in attention.

Just being alive 50 years really said something about you. Now any idiot in the first world can make it well into old age with no respect, character, vitality, skill, or even friends.

Now, it does not, so no respect should be bestowed upon elders by default.

effigies

Most of human history has been essentially a holding pattern, with social, political, and technological change advancing slowly. Though one century might not resemble the next, within the lifetime of an individual, not much would change. This would naturally give rise to high estimation of experience, which would only increase with age.

With the technological changes brought about by the Scientific, Industrial, and Digital Revolutions, it has turned into a young man's world. New technology for which there is no historical precedent removes the advantage of those who have lived history, and puts it in the hands of those who can learn and adapt most quickly, which is a feature of youth.

I wouldn't say I disagree with Craig Ferguson, though. But I would say the cultural empowerment of youth, as well as the disregard for age, stems from a technological empowerment of youth.

Also, note that experience is still highly valued. But it's experience with the latest technologies.

fridgetarian

This is also an American invention. I usually describe high school football culture whenever I try to analogize this phenomenon. And, I love his imagery of an inverted world, because that is what it is—the old revering the young. This is the reversal of the whole (recent) history of human behavior. (I know that in many animal societies strength is revered, and that youth can correlate with strength, but this gets into the whole alpha male/pecking order thing. And besides, these heights of power are are mid-life or later.) I just see it as a manipulation of the nostalgia of parents and it leads to a pathological desire to live vicariously through children or to physiologically resist the aging process.

In short: I officially love Craig Ferguson.

eric22vhs

This is actually something I've been trying to explain to people for a while now. Youth marketing, as far as I know, really took off more towards the late 70's and 80's when the Boomers were suddenly the ones trying to circulate all of their money by selling to each other's children.

This was the beginning of the real consumer era, and as easy as it is too blow off all the cliches over consumerism as bullshit, it really is about the largest sociological phenomenon since imperialism.

da_bradler

I disagree, Humans achieve their mental and emotional peak at around 25 years, You will never think or feel as strongly and as clearly as you do during that time. You gain knowledge and experience but the machinery that is the human body is at its optimum operating capacity at around 25 years. That's why we idolize youth that's why ageing people wish they still had their youth.

Also the younger you are the more everything you know is based in the now instead of the past. Youth are much more capable of seeing future trends because they exist in a time closer to the future their judgment is less obscured by decades of no longer relevant information

reedbecker

Yah, it is never the old people in control deciding how the world works.

leighahall

the laughter track/whooping audience detracts from what he's trying to say

Fu_Man_Chu

It goes back a LOT longer than that. Around the time Christianity was on the rise there was a cultural shift from a religion of the father (Judaism) to a religion of the Son (Christianity). He touches on the latest manifestation of our youth obsession with gusto though.

draxus99

Uhhhh... more like going from a history of reverence to age and ignorance, to now celebrating youth and wisdom

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