A Call to Wisdom Part I

A Call to Wisdom!

Modern World, currently in chaos, seeks "Elder", "Sage", "Sophos", "Guru"...

I've been thinking a lot recently about how our society views our aged populations and I've come to some rather startling conclusions. It is no secret that there is little serious respect for our elder generations in our modern western society. While we’re still brought up with the admonition to “Respect our Elders”, I don’t consider this to be, in fact, a genuine respect. The “respect” that we’ve been taught to demonstrate is nothing more than an insistence towards kindness and a tolerance for views and ideas that merely belong to a history past and are no longer relevant. The elderly, in our current world are simply considered as more of a problem and burden than an asset to be drawn upon. While this isn’t exactly true of all of our current day modern cultures, I’m afraid that our western view of the aged is quite dismal indeed. With that foregone conclusion stated, my second conclusion is that, besides having this negative image thrust on us by a “youth enamored” society, we have completely, readily and without contest or reservation, accepted this dubious distinction hook, line and sinker. My third and most troubling conclusion is that, from a historical perspective, we’ve earned this negative estimation.

I will delve into and justify each of these conclusions individually but, before I tackle them I’d first like to address my fourth and most important concern; That our current world is in a dire need for a resource of wisdom and leadership that can only be derived from a respected, proven, trusted and efficacious “Sage”, “Sophos” or “Elder” segment of society as has traditionally served in history's most highly developed civilizations.

In my quest to understand our attitudes towards wisdom amidst our senior population, I've regularly run into references of what the founder of the school of analytical psychology, Carl Gustav Jung termed as the archetype of the "Wise Old Man" or "Wise Elder". We are all very familiar with this archetype from his appearances in film and literature as a number of different characters; Gandalf from Lord of the Rings, Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars, Morpheus from "The Matrix" or Albus Dumbledore from Harry Potter. Even from a more human perspective we have Mr. Miyagi in “The Karate Kid”, Mickey from the Rocky series or even Alfred Pennyworth the mentor and father figure of Batman. In every instance, they all depict a valuable and treasured resource. They all represent a resource that is vital to the overall success of the protagonist.

Merlin: The epitome of the "Wise Elder" archetype

While the evidence indeed indicates that the idea of symbolic archetype is still under high regard, it is sadly obvious, in our daily dealing with the elderly, that the archetype itself has been relegated to fiction and (especially lately), pure fantasy. From a first glance, it may appear that I'm being unreasonable in supposing there is a higher expectation of knowledge and wisdom from those who simply have the advantage of a longer overall lifespan. After all, we live in the information age where all we would need to know for any situation can be gleaned from our cell phones by a simple, properly worded google search. While to many, the distinction between knowledge and wisdom is critically evident, I do fear that many have as well, totally lost the importance of this vital distinction.

It is true indeed that my above examples are merely fictional archetypes but it is also my contention that these archetypes may indeed exist as a result of a long history based on reality. Almost every culture has their tradition of the "Wise Sage". One example is that of Jiang Ziya ( 11th century bc), who was a Chinese noble that helped in the overthrow the Shang in ancient China at the reported age of 72. Also of Chinese history are the "Seven Sages of The Bamboo Grove". Greece had their historical examples in what were referred to as the "Seven Sages of Greece" while similar resources have been recorded in India, Persia, Vietnam as well as examples in Judaism with Rabbi's of Talmudic background.

I believe it is safe to say that in modern western civilization, our attitudes toward the elderly are punctuated by an ageism that stereotypes the elderly as being generally deficient in both body and mind. The elderly are often portrayed as "behind the times" and "set in their ways" so completely that they are entirely without the capacity to change or adapt. An entire generation that is so completely removed from our modern life that they are simply unable to meaningfully contribute to the modern world today. The 21st century indeed is perceived by many seniors as being permeated with "newfangled" ways  that are without merit and cling to the obsolete as a way that worked so much better "back in the day".  While much has been written to entirely debunk the idea that "The good old days" were, in reality, better than today, our memories naturally hone in to a time of simplicity, comfort and familiarity.

To look around and see what’s happening in our daily newspapers, we need to wonder how far we can stray and maintain our status as an enlightened, advanced and evolved humanity. We need to to learn from our history and not just the facts (although today even the facts are in dispute and in jeopardy), we need to know the effects… The wisdom that transcends these facts. While we are indeed quite aware that if we do not learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it, the wisdom of history is also quite succinctly expressed in this quote from D.H. Lawrence:

“Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves.”

I believe the above quote to be especially poignant as it relates to our current state of affairs and our lack of practical wisdom in our approach to life and especially towards our approach to aging. I believe it to be applicable to not only liberty as stated, but as a lesson to be applied universally in regards to progress, growth and especially a wisdom that is won only through struggle and effort.

We need our wise men and women as never before! Only they have the answers to our world's most pressing problems and they are nowhere to be found. Were the changes too fast and pervasive? Have we lost our societal role identities as the PR “Image Makers” of our modern mass media spin our realities?  

The “Why” and “How” of our current world’s void of generational wisdom is far beyond the scope of this piece. Chances are we'll never know or agree to any degree of certainty. Suffice it to say, we can all agree, our “Elder Wise Men” (and women), are missing in action, and at the worst possible time.

The goal of this post is therefore to simply address our reality and to confront the problem at hand (and hopefully propose some solutions). I like what author Mr. Michael Meade has written in his blog post “Where Have All the Wise Men Gone” and I think it summarizes our problem quite nicely (emphasis mine):

“In traditional cultures, the elders were considered to be a valuable resource without whose guidance the whole society could lose its way.

Yet in modern life, instead of people growing “older and wiser,” people can simply grow older and older. People can live longer and longer without becoming any wiser for it. When there is no genuine growth in growing older, aging can become all about loss. The longer people live the more of life they seem to lose. Instead of developing wise and seasoned “elders” who can help others find meaningful ways to live, modern societies are in danger of producing “olders” who blindly seek ways to hold onto life at any cost.”

In order to address this gaping and unmet demand for the “Elder Sage” I’m afraid I need to target my audience... In order to address this lack of mature wisdom in this present time, I need to be talking to those who are generally referred to as the "Baby Boomer Generation"... So, if you identify yourself as a baby boomer and you were born sometime between 1946 and 1964, I’d like to challenge you with this series and perhaps begin to enlist even the smallest segment of its’ readers to accept this “calling”, as it were. While I do see a clear and certain path in which we can recapture the respect of our world and thereby regain that position of essential influence, it will hardly be easy. I also find it interesting that after talking of archetypes, protagonists, characters both of fantasy & fiction, that this path I propose, to in reality, involve hardship, adventure, self sacrifice and a journey of discovery to equal any that we’ve previously entertained in fact or fiction.

In the next installment, I’ll be exploring in detail the contributions of the “Elder Sage” in one particular, but especially relevant segment in history. Before we’re done, I’ll map this path and will be able to portray, for this generation, exactly where we are, where we’ve faltered and most importantly, how to get back on track.

Like many other examples in life, I believe our weaknesses can, with the proper attention, become our greatest strengths. I am also confident that our current age, with unlimited access to information and an average lifespan unmatched to date, easily warrants a hope and opportunity for a wisdom previously unrivaled. I also find it quite enlightening that, while filling this void in our society, which so desperately needs to be filled, we will in fact, “find ourselves” and simultaneously fill that void that I see in so many seniors, that too… so desperately needs to be filled.

Until then…

Daryll