Prejudice- too young, too old?
It's interesting, and honestly a bit frightening, to see the age-prejudice that America is faced with. As our society already faces racism and homophobia, I am starting to see more frequently a new kind of prejudice- one of age.
The other day I overheard a student saying that elderly people are useless to American society; we'd be better off "getting rid of them" when they stop benefitting the society and that their licenses and other daily priveledges should be revoked. Why is it that every elderly person is categorized in this kind of way? True, some are horrible drivers with bad eyesight, etc. But not all. In the same effect, not all elderly sit around their houses all day. There is a large number of active elderly people who do the same things as younger citizens. It is not our right to revoke rights of older citizens, merely because of age.
Similarly, I often hear adults speaking of youth in the same condesending manner. Often people assume because some teens want to be "rebellious" and perhaps irresponsibly, this trait is carried out through all of America's youth. How is this right? As many can see on PSO, there is a large number of youth that are not only responsible, but intelligent. Youth that care about their country and those who govern it. In many cases now, the youth is becoming more informed than many adults and much of the youth in reality can be more responsible in ways than adults are. The government and the society tries to give and take priveledges based on age- vote and die at 18, drink at 21, be president at 35, etc. But how can one know when someone is mature, responsible and intelligent enough to have that priveledge? I don't think it's safe to say that each of these priveledges can be so categorized by age. I feel that maturity, responsibility, pathos, and intelligence towards these things are often better calculated in a case by case basis. Obviously in reality, that would be ridiculously complicated, unfortunately.
The point is, who is anyone to judge a whole part of society merely by their age?
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Comments
You have some really cool thoughts. But I think maturity is based off of life expirience. I dont think young kids should be dying for their country. I see obituary's for them way too much, but a presidential candidate does need to have know what he/she is talking about and life expiriences can help someone with that.
You can be as intelligent and responsible as anyone, but without experience you still do not know a thing about life. One of the biggest reasons why young people buy into the Utopian promises of politicians like Obama.
And how do you explain the elderly and the middle aged adults who support Obama then? What about the republican newspapers and media sources that campaigned for Bush the past two terms and are campaigning for Obama this year?
Clearly not everyone that will vote for Obama is inexperienced. In times of crisis, people often will latch themselves onto those that promise the world, like snake oil salesmen. Even smart, experienced people can be complete idiots sometimes.
McCain voted with Bush 90% of the time, and we have been going straight down hill for 8 years. Are you trying to say that it's completley illogical to want to give the other party control?
It hasn't been all down hill for the last 8years, it has been downhill for the past 6 months. The democrats already control congress and have for the past two years. They are to blame for our economic failures, the fact that we are going to give them even more power is pure lunacy.
I don't think it's fair to say that "pure lunacy" I think it's crazy to vote for Palin or McCain but I would never say pure lunacy, or call people idiots. People are entitled to another opinion, and just because you don't see it that way doesn't mean you need to patronize people for expresseing disgust with the current way things are going. And blaming the democrats for all the problems right now is just wrong.
both of your points are perfectly acceptable, but just because you think something is right doesn't mean it is or is'nt. That it just your opinion.
Exactly. Just because people are going to vote for the more successful candidate of the two, doesn't make them idiots.
How is Obama more successful? His ideas aren't, they have been tried before and have failed every single time. His record isn't, because he has no record to speak of. The thing he is successful at is fooling people. He is great at that, one of the best.
Unfortunately, you fail to give any examples of how his ideas are inherently flawed, or how they've been tried and supposedly discredited by the populace at large. I disagree when you say he has 'no record to speak of'. Two minutes on Google searching up the credentials of Obama will turn up tons of results that you can browse through. I hardly think being a Harvard graduate and a Senator automatically disqualifies him to being the Commander in Chief.
The only reason why he does not have as large of resume is because he is somewhat young when it comes to politics, and certainly has much more to learn. Biden completes this circle by giving him a chance to contend with the individuals of a larger stature. Of course, you don't address how Palin also has no record to speak of. But I digress.
'Fooling' people, as you put it, is a quality most politicians try to perfect. Saying if this is a negative or positive thing depends on the situation. When you contradict yourself in ways that are so black-and-white, then your argument falls apart.
Well any good politician should be great at fooling people first of all. And I think his ideas are much more successful- they have been tested whether here or in other countries and have had success a majority of the time. Even though he is no saint, he is the lesser of the evils.
Leigh