Death and Wisdom Part 4

The controversy over my claim that the ever-present specter of death brings added wisdom to the elderly continues on several philosophical forums.

I have been accused of an ad hominem. Here forth my response:

I started off this thread by making an original observation that challenged conventional wisdom - about the relationship between age, death and wisdom. The idea was immediately attacked and I defended it. When no one could produce an observation that directly addressed that general relationship between the elderly and the wisdom thoughts of death brings to them, presenting as their challenge the side-effects of occasional brushes with death by the young as being of equal merit, which, in my opinion is clearly not so, (I had several such brushes myself when younger and that effect on my psyche is not the same as how death is affecting me today) the attack was then turned on me. I defended myself by hitting back - a silly mistake i know, but I am only human. I do not, however, consider my counter-attack as an ad Hominem, since no one has presented a contradiction that seriously challenges my claim, and which I can fairly analyse and comment on.

The whole point of this thread was not meant to provoke controversy. I sincerely believed that I was bringing a piece of interesting information to the social table. The reason I did so was because I was brought up in a social environment that revered the elderly. In fact it was considered rude to even utter an elders name when speaking to or about him or her. One always referred to an elder in the third person. I grew up admiring the genteel politeness of that social etiquette. Since then, over the past half century, I have watched that old-fashioned custom, not only gradually erode, but also reverse itself. The disparaging remarks about the elderly on this forum give clear testimony to the disregard senior citizens are subjected to nowadays. This fact got me wondering - what has happened to social mores on this matter and why did such drastic change happen?

I realized that just a few years back I would never have made the connection between age and death and wisdom how that reality impinges upon and changes the psyche of the elderly. Over the past year or two as I have reached the mid 60's I have come to realize just how much the idea of my impending demise has leavened my thinking and made it that much more profound. This was a revelation to me. Nobody had explained the distinction between a sage and a neophyte to me in terms of death awareness before. So I shared the revelation in general terms, never expecting an adverse backlash.

This concerted backlash by so many got me thinking again - about the whole concept of presenting an original opinion, subjective or otherwise, that challenges conventional wisdom. History shows us that no matter how much merit it may have, it will be immediately challenged by protectors of the status quo who have fixed positions on any given subject and do not like them challenged. If a new idea cannot be routed or refuted by one or more of their number, they then gang up and the initiator is ridiculed and even, in the extreme, persecuted. In general, the closer to the Truth a novel idea is, the greater the reactive backlash.

So far the attack on how death leavens the wisdom of the aged has been unrelenting, so one may take it that the idea may be hitting close to home. I personally think that this observation about sagehood is a valuable contribution that helps to explain the distinction between senior citizens and juniors, and it should receive due consideration.