Despite what you might think, your additional years on earth do not make your opinion superior to mine. I would go a step further and say that your inflexibility and unwillingness to accept the views of others due strictly to age might just make yours worthless. Don't discredit yourself by being haughty. Our views are different, that's it. Evaluate each on their merit, their logic, and their heart, not their seniority.
Now there is something to be said for longevity and there are indeed lessons learned through age and experience, age is not the deciding factor: understanding your experiences is. There are follies in youth, this cannot be denied. Among them are: rush to judgement, eagerness, thirst for destroying the old, ignorance, etc. Interestingly enough, these are similar to the follies of the old, the main difference being yours are firmer and believed to be earned (though are they, or did you get tired of searching?. I will not tire in the search for Truth, Beauty and Love, just change my approach). The young are malleable, willing to change their ideas in search for the Truth (that's Truth with a big T). Did you give up? Were you exposed to horrors that made you fear change? Could it also be said that the old are jealous?
My statements are not made through haste (even if sometimes I run my mouth) and I reflect often on what it is I believe and why I believe it AND the external causal factors that produced me in order to understand myself. So when you come at me with "You'll understand when you are older", it leads me to believe that you have forgotten your own history and have no concept of having a world-view. Mostly, you don't know me at all. I often miss the zeal and exuberance I once had. The difference between the old-head and myself is that I believe it can come back, and not through tossing caution to the wind or buying a flashy car or the like. It comes from being able to let go and accept your life how it is in this moment. Balance the exuberance and love of life in youth and the foresight that comes through
honest experience. The universe orchestrated it, you acted in it and here is the result- Your life. Another part is accepting that life is transient and always changing. That goes for you old-heads as well! We were all once children, lest we forget. We have all made mistakes (I do daily, I admit). Be honest with your approach. If I am wrong in my accusation here, I will stand down, being wrong does not make my opinion worthless, nor does it make it a lie. My approach is honest and made with all of my heart.
That being said, let us develop an argument (note that I am being very generous in developing an argument for you, old-heads, even though you have not one):
(1)Through age and experience comes wisdom. (2)Person A is young and has not aged. (3)Therefore Person A does not have wisdom.
Let us take a look at point 1, the premise: yes, there is something to be said for experience. We fall so we can learn to pick ourselves back up. This much is true. However, point 1 posits that solely through those two aspects can we truly gain wisdom. This is patently false. Any student of philosophy (schooled or not) can tell you that through good education of history and philosophy (with a good dose of many other schools of thought) is another path to wisdom and it relies not on age but determination to better yourself and expand your world view. Age is therefore only one factor in other possible routes to Truth and Wisdom. Point one discredited! Strike one!
Number 2, the qualifier. Shall we? Well, this is just a statement of fact. "this person has not been on earth as a human being very long" and it has more to do with "does this statement or point of evaluation qualify under the premise?" That's how simple Aristotelian Logic works. and then to point three (conclusion) where it is a yes or no to the qualification. But while on two, How about old-souls? Those who we say are wise beyond their years? Surely it isn't their age that has given them insight but something else.
Conclusion (three): the conclusion of the argument does not hold as the premise and qualifier have been discredited. (read: Eat that Old-heads!!!!)
All that being said, I still have the utmost respect for those who came before me (although it may not appear as such by reading this). Ask anyone with whom I have had contact. They can speak for me. I have a deep love of all people, and I consider this a challenge to you to be open and evaluate your world view and see how you treat others. Come on, if a 26 year old can, so can you :)
