Age matters?
What I find to be amazing is the fact that in this day and age, a lot of people still see age as some kind of pre-requisite to be knowledgeable. As if living for longer than someone else actually puts you a step above them in the intelligence department.
Let me be frank; the people who have this view need to have their livers punctured with a pen knife so they can bleed black for three minutes before dying an extremely painful death.
Age does not give you some magical advantage over everyone who is more than five years younger than you. In fact all that age proves is the concept that you are old - or at least closer to being "old" than those who were born after you. Furthermore, it is safe to say that age is merely an indicator of your current life expectancy on a "death by natural causes" scale. Obviously, the older you are, the closer you are to reaching your natural expiry date (unless I cut you off on your journey to the coffin by tearing out your throat and feeding it to you).
To further disprove this myth of "age = knowledge/intelligence" I've comprised a brief (though disprovable) list of evidence taken from various stages in the history of the world.
Examples of the young:
- David Mang, under the age of 18, and by far one of the most accomplished musicians of his time. Currently head of his class at the University of Ottawa's Department of Music - leading those who are much, much older than him in a profession they have been working in for many years.
- Adam Spencer, aged 13 and excelling in French, biology, chemistry, mathematics and philosophical debate. Currently waiting to be accepted into University as he has already completed all other levels of schooling.
- Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) from the Sixth Sense, by far one of the most intuitive people in the world - able to see what very few others (especially adults) can see. If you fuck with him, it's likely his deceased friends will go morbid lumberjack style on your ass.
- Dr. Douglas "Doogie" Howser, graduated from Princeton at the age 14 and is now furthering himself in the medical profession, surpassing the skill of most of his (older) colleagues.
- Gordo, Able and Miss Baker, the first Americans in space, at ages between 5 to 8. Have you ever known older people to be put in space? Possibly - but were they one of the first (Americans) to do so? No! So from this, it can be seen that if the "olds" can't even compete with monkeys aged between 5 to 8, how the hell do they propose being more knowledgeable than those younger than them of the same species? (I hear you saying: "But there was never any young humans in space!" - my answer is simple: international laws prohibit young humans from going into space, and/or any of the planets surrounding earth; otherwise we would be there already.)
Examples of the "olds":
- Mark Burnett, the father of "reality TV"; you know .. that thing which everyone (smart) says how much they despise and wish would just go away and stop being so over-used?
- Adolf Hitler, does this one really need any explanation? Depending on your morals, you could argue that he accomplished a hell-of-a-lot for the "olds", but then that would look like you were really grasping for a standpoint.
- Michael Jackson, produced and performed some great and arguably "timeless" songs; but does that outweigh the obvious negatives? I think not.
- George W. Bush (current), this one is self-explanatory.
There it is - unshakable proof that the old argument of "the young are inexperienced, therefore their views do not count" is incorrect.
You can not put a counter on who reads, experiences and learns worthwhile things, when they do it, why they do it, and so forth. So when making the assumption that someone you are arguing with is younger than you, therefore they must be wrong - try and remember that not everyone is the same. You could be talking to a child genius, the future president, the discoverer of a cure for AIDS, or someone who is about to outsmart you and let you get your foot caught in a bear trap so they can twist your head off while you're still conscious.
Unfortunately for you, the youth are the future - and we're a very spiteful bunch. I know that if I hear anymore comments about how I "don't know anything because I'm young", then when I take my position of power in the future, I will do everything in my power to destroy the universe - purely to spite those who looked down on me in my younger years.
Those who see age as a pre-requisite for being knowledgeable need to be slaughtered, have a nice day.