oneguy; I get the sense you are a millenial. I don’t here too many boomers concerned with what generation they belong to anymore. I think that’s something that concerns someone who is still searching for an identity. I don’t think older people get stuck. There are definitely people who are stuck, and they got stuck sometime around age 28 or earlier. These are people who don’t read and pursue mostly personal pleasures. They don’t change the world, but some do vote, too many. What happens when you get older is you realize people older than you were right, and it’s extremely difficult to get younger people to listen to the same things those older people were telling you. So, go clean up your room and think about how you are affecting people around you. We’ll have a talk later.
Lausten, I wish it were true that it was only those who don’t read or are less educated who were stuck. I know a scary number of very educated and active older people (55+) who are incapable of getting out of their old-fashioned mind-set. It’s also sad how many young and middle aged people are simply carrying on their parents way of thinking.
Just last night Alberta overwhelmingly voted in a right-wing party to run the province. That’s in spite of the horrible people in the party. There are openly admitted homophobes, islamophobes, xenophobes, religious fanatics, climate-change deniers, and criminals (lots of investigations into election rigging and other very undemocratic crimes) as candidates, who were voted in by a landslide by all my friends and neighbors. I doubt that I even know a person who didn’t vote UCP, and most people I know are smarter than average.
I used to think that if we can only wait out the current older generation, the next generation can finally vote in rational and thoughtful leaders. But I now realize that somehow most people have been convinced that their parents and grandparents were right about everything.
Oneguy, tossing troll chum for the older posters. He keeps harping on how old ppl are out of touch, and are incapable of relating to young ppl. Yet he doesn’t offer any insights re: what is so beyond the understanding of the elderly. In my day, I recall the meme being: “You can’t trust anyone over 40.” At least oneguy has pushed that age up to 50.
Of course some old ppl have calcified ideas and poor empathic abilities, and perhaps poor memories of their own youth. But for the old ppl who are not so afflicted, I daresay, they would be more able to connect with younger persons because they have actually been young themselves. Young ppl, however, have never, yet, been old, so it might be more difficult for them to genuinely connect with older folk.
3point, re: the sicko Canadian righties that you speak of: High intelligence, alone, does not immunize one from developing and maintaining perverted belief systems.
TimB. I used to assume age and wisdom were synonymous, but I now see that’s not the case at all.
It’s just so weird that these educated, successful, nice people can be so smart in so many other areas, yet fail miserably at being ethically consistent.
Too true. I agree with the above old folks. 
Oh yeah, this weekend I got another reality check on the aging process.
First you just get more tired.
Then you get way more tired.
Then it plain old hurts.
Then your body, steps in “oh you ain’t gonna give me no break?” When I was younger we just blasted through that barrier and the reserves kicked in. Now, I hit that barrier and I’m down and sick. “It’s not smart to ignore your body.”
Oh but I do digress, I’ll let the rest of you do the serious stuff.