This video discusses the stigmatism of aging and the longing for a rebirth of youth. It is called "'Youth & Aging' Tales of Mere Existence" and is found on youtube.
Throughout the piece, older characters are juxtaposed against those of youth. The comparisons mock the evidence of aging: baldness, class reunions, divorces, midlife crisis, etc. Many of the other characters find themselves longing to return to their childhoods or are haunted by traumatic experiences during that time and want to seek revenge on all youth. This clash between these two demographic groups demonstrate great misunderstanding and prejudice/stereotypes among them. It's interesting to note the role that media plays in influencing these views. The magazine that the accountant reads causes him to compare his "older" age to that of the "younger" successful writer. This example evokes a sense of meaningless to that character's life and longing to be successful (become youthful to attempt to make something more of himself).
At the end of the video the narrator states: "the reason why old people become nostalgic about youth is because when they were young, they didn't know how things would turn out yet." I thought this was a pretty profound statement. Most parents warn their children what and what not to do to avoid unnecessary mistakes. In addition, those children, for the most part, ignore their parents' advice and make the mistakes anyways. I always wondered what the world would be like if everyone were to learn off the mistakes of others. Those that have experienced environments and events that others haven't obviously are wiser and can give great insight to a certain situation.
Another quote I found interesting was "youth is lost when the saying 'anything is possible' is replaced with 'a lot less is possible than I originally thought and isn't worth bothering with.'" This quote makes me wonder why adults seem to become easily discouraged and less enthusiastic about taking risks and exposing themselves to new situations. Are they scared of failure because they have experienced more of it?
Posts
While I think both the young and the old idealize aspects of the opposite, it a curious and pervasive trend that age forgets youth and youth underestimates age. Parents can at times seek to force lessons upon their children that restrict the very thing that makes them nostalgic about youth: possibility, and the chance to makes choices and mistakes on one's own. Conversely adolescents underestimate the value of what is taught. On that subject you pose an interesting final question. It's hard to say who's more afraid, those who have experienced failure or those who've yet to.
ReplyDelete