‘YOU’RE TOO OLD!’ IS THAT SO, YOUNG TURKS?

It’s clear what the main line of attack has been and is going to be on John McCain: he’s too old! Obama’s spokespersons have been labelling every misstep, adjustment and even simple disagreements with the word ‘confused’ or ‘confusion’ or something similar. Read this as Alzheimer's or dementia, of course!

On the factual face of it, this seems pretty absurd. McCain’s best argument has been his 96-year old mother. (Some see the references to her as 'exploitation', of course.)  Have you seen her!? She’s far sharper than these profane, ad hominem, bullies who have proliferated on the blogs in recent months and has far more energy than most young people I know. McCain could never have managed the miraculous turnaround he did here in New Hampshire and the country if he were not remarkably energetic and sharp. My wife and I saw him personally at a couple of his 100+ town halls here; believe us, there is no truth in these insinuations.

However, I fear they will have some effect simply because of some bad cultural habits we have developed in our attitude towards 'age'. My purpose here is to contrast the present attitude with that of what might be a saner past. I will then offer a paradigm case which I think applies pretty well right now.

Age in most all cultures and times within civilized history has been highly valued, and for very good reasons. The Wisdom books of the Bible, for instance, mention it quite a bit as well as countless other touchstone sources of Wisdom for every civilization. This doesn’t just apply to very fancy or esoteric types of knowledge; a lot of it is very practical or mundane. One way to put it is the old saw “why reinvent the wheel”. It’s not youth’s fault it’s inexperienced; youth, by definition, is inexperience. So, shouldn’t youth take advantage of knowledge gained by mistakes already made? St. Therese of Lisieux in her Story of A Soul puts it this way: everyone loves the Mary Magdalene figure for making such big mistakes and then being forgiven, delivered from her demons and healed. Wouldn’t it be a lot more heroic and laudable, with God’s grace, to avoid the mistakes in the first place?

One example of this was enshrined in the idea of a “Senate” which comes from the Latin senax for “old”. The bicameral model balances the enthusiasm and immediacy of a House with the wisdom and ‘cooling saucer’ effect of a Senate. The word ‘presbyter’, the canonical word for a Catholic priest, is a Greek New testament translation of zaqen from Hebrew Scriptures , each meaning ‘elder’. This is not to say by the way that no youth can have any wisdom. When Paul appointed the young Timothy as Bishop, he was an ‘elder’ who was much younger than most to whom he ministered! However, a lot of the wisdom of youth lies in relying on those older. Paul urged Timothy several times to “hold fast to the Tradition” he was taught by the Apostles and to study their life example constantly.

Now, where have we gone wrong in our culture? The way I would sum it up is we have made an Idol of physical health. There is a lack of faith in deeper values like Virtue, Character, Ethics, etc. There is a lack of faith in the eternal worth of our ‘soul’. As Jesus said, “Do not fear those who can only kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.” What value is there left in being old without that knowledge, belief or attitude? When you no longer believe in such a thing, all you have left is physical health. Why bother learning in the school of hard knocks. Life sucks and then you die. The one who dies with the most toys wins the game. Enjoy it while you can. If it feels good, do it. Don’t trust anyone over 30. The cult of youth has given us hundreds of STD’s, 50% divorce, high crime, abortion and the death of etiquette among other things. The tragic irony is that when all you have left is physical health, even that is destroyed. We weren’t made that way. Natural Law and the Ten Commandments tell us that respecting elders in some way and not reinventing the wheel is about as Wise as we can get.

Yes, letting youth take over completely, uniformed with little input from those who’ve been there, can get pretty ugly. One example is the original “Young Turks” from which we get the axiomatic phrase. One result of their “change we can believe in” was the Armenian genocide among other mistakes that had already been made.

The one paradigm example I want to use, however, is the story of Jeroboam from the First Book of Kings in the Bible. God had delivered a warning to Solomon: do not turn to false gods and do not oppress the people under your care (love God and love your neighbor) or your Kingdom will be split at your death. Well, guess what he did. He married hundreds of wives and ‘multi-culturally’ joined in with their worship as time went on. This struck at the very identity of the nation, of course; what made it what it was, was its faith in the One Creator. Further, in building his vast Empire with its many palaces and drafted army, he imposed crippling taxation and indentured servitude. You were forced into ‘public service’.

When Solomon died it became clear that he had not formed the character of his son and heir, Jeroboam, very well. All of the tribes came to Jeroboam and begged him to lighten the crushing load of taxation and forced service. Jeroboam had two sets of advisors: one group of holdovers from his father who had managed the Empire, and his group of young friends. The older group advised Jeroboam: make a compromise, give them something they want for now until the leadership can figure out what to do next. Pretty basic and smart governance, that. On the other hand, his younger friends advised him to show them all who was boss and make a big splash for himself. Jeroboam told them: ‘you thought my father was harsh? Well! My little finger is thicker than his whole body! He used whips? I’ll use scorpions!’ Hindsight being 20/20, we can all see how utterly STUPID this was! But these youths, disconnected from the wisdom of their elders, could only see brilliance and enthusiasm. The Kingdom was split, never to be what it had been again.

Compare this with the Obama phenomenon: change almost for change’s sake, a feeling of brilliance and enthusiasm. It seems to be a rejection of past ways of doing things in a general sort of way, almost a rejection of age itself. (This has been tempered in recent weeks by some furious flip-flopping to the center but as some point out Obama will be forced in large part to govern in the way he has first presented himself.) Notice he has the required devotion to diversity and multiculturalism. There have been many worrisome signs about his faith in the national identity most of us accept. Further, he has placed public (government) service as the highest good. Michelle Obama intimated we would all be forced to do what is right in good in their eyes. I think you can probably fill in the rest of this comparison yourself.   There appears to be the danger of making the same kind of cultural mistake Jeroboam made about age.

One further point is that many people in history have started and accomplished their life’s mission at an advanced age. Moses didn’t even get started until he was 80 years old. St. Patrick was in his 70’s. There are many such examples in modern history, too. William Gladstone started his final ministry at 83. There is no reason to reject someone who is old if there is no real evidence of impairment.

So, McCain is old. That might not be such a bad thing. In fact, it may be a good thing.