WISDOM OF ELDERS

Since we have lost touch with tribal cohesion, I think our culture suffers. Common fires were replaced by kitchen tables. Both were replaced by radio, then television and now the internet. With this we have lost a source of wisdom and insight from elders. Different than radio and television, the internet has the ability to correct that situation. Hence the blogosphere, the problem here is a never ending stream of malarky.

Aside from that let's be honest, baby boomers are a deviant social phenomenon. Sage advice isn't currently abundant. Our heroes were pretty superficial and I retrospectively perceive them as media shills. Heck, some were just out and out reprobates that we swallowed in our own free spirited, reefer addled, '___' sopped stupors. I know I am stepping on toes here, but please understand, some of those toes are in my shoes. My point is, generally speaking, as elders, we absolutely suck.

No wonder our kids are so lame. We freed up a repressive system and created a nihilistic monster of a social order. WE did that. WE were both smart and stupid at the same time. Some of us skyrocketed in to hypermaterialism and greed. (Greed really isn't good). Some of us partied into a dysfunctional stupor and woke up one morning and said, "Where did all these creepy kids come from?" Some of us politically corrected us all into an uptight cattle shoot of anal retentive polite order. Some of us grabbed that cross and beat the crap out of everybody that couldn't make that christian connection. All of us let the corporate monster grow severely out of control went fascist on us all.

We elected the corrupt ones, we walked away and let them make the big money selling our lives to the corporations.

Our superficial claim of freedom ate us alive. Carl Sandburg in his epic poem, The People, Yes, touched me with his line, "There quest of lucre beyond a few simple needs, has left many men dead years before burial." That sums up a good three fingers of the boomers. Even more of the X'ers.

We are a self absorbed lot. We are a duped lot and our legacy stinks like a chum bucket topped of with puke.

Gen Xer's, they don't have a clue as to how good life could be. They ramped up our pretentious trappings and now lead their children unprepared into a maelstrom that they will not be able to manage.

We are now faced with polarity, disconnect, isolation, and compartmentalization than is DESIGNED to cut us off from one another. We let it happen in our self absorbed post-uterine worlds.

Okay, rant done. Back to the Wisdom of Elders. Boomers, redeem yourselves here. Put into this thread your best attempt at sage insight into surviving this world of ours. I surrender the floor to those that wish to impart their life lessons.

I will chime in now and then.

This seems like it should be posted in rants. A little off topic

reply to post by TechVampyre


My first thread. It just went there. This speech won't scow.

it just went there? sorry I am puzzled.

But as for the original topic of the thread Yes i completely agree with you.

reply to post by TechVampyre


Newbie. Older newbie, but newbie just the same. Probably didn't scroll down far enough and missed the forums list.

reply to post by RighteousDude


Anyway it don't really matter Welcome to ats! I like how you brought up the point that we elect the corrupt ones i have been saying it for years. That is why i don't vote...I don't want to be held accountable for the fools actions in office. And every one who put bush in office should look at all the blood on there own hands too. In my eyes there just as guilty as him for electing him. just my option

Welcome to ATS - I agree with your opening rant and then some!

Theres very little wisdom left in the world...you're right.

A lot of the wisdom from the older cultures came from being with nature and not the universal machine we've created for ourselves. Issolation and lazyness is what the world is about now with little regard for nature and what it teaches.

Its amazing that there are still people that believe in the spirit or anything beyond the physical world, all things considered...

reply to post by Akragon


I believe in the spirit. I think I believe in the spirit more than anything. I feel disconnected from the spirit, as if my prayers go unanswered.

Some of my prayers deserve to go unanswered.

I don't like the way we communicate anymore. I have a love hate relationship with the web. I talk to you or actually the whole world, THE WHOLE WORLD, and still, I talk to no one at all. I am sensing seekers and sorrowful people all of them hollering down a well and here I am hollering down the same well.

We are not empowering ourselves. We say we are waking up, but, we're not getting out of bed.

I wish there was an ATSstock or something where we could see how many like minded people we could actually relate to and have face time.

It's nice to put notions and ideas out into internet and see where they go. Now that I think about it, at a tribal council only a handful of people heard the elders speak and remembered their words. One reaches out into the web and invites others to sit by his/her fire, one reaches only a handful of people.

It really is more than we had before. "I must smoke on this..."

Some of the best or perhaps most respectable elders kicked the bucket already. (George Carlin for example.) And what's left seems fairly beholden to mainstream interests. There's not much point in getting that much insight from somebody that just repeats whatever the status quo du jour is. Or something like that.

Of course as a "Gen-X" kid, I could technically be considered an elder already in some circles. But I don't really care if anyone takes or leaves my advice. Everybody's got some these days, and occasionally this old dog learns some new tricks from the young-uns. (Like setting up certain configs, or figuring out how to exploit some videogame mechanic.)

reply to post by pauljs75


This thread is a bit of a fail. That's okay, I'm still seeing value. You mention George Carlin. When I was young, I met him. Real down to earth, almost somber person. Keeping it real, as it were. I don't think he bought into the fame game at all. Some say that's why he's not here anymore.

Getting back to the elders, we don't functions as elders. We didn't grow in wisdom and so we are not revered. This may be a personal issue for me as I am not a father. However, I see fathers (and mothers) who have helped hone their children's skill in stupidity. What is the legacy?

When I put this into the wind, I was soliciting pearls of wisdom from around the web. That didn't quite take. Maybe on a spiritual level it wasn't supposed to happen.

Welcome old newbie Lots of those here . Agree with your rant. Your words are wise and your thread well thought out. Look forward to your next one.