Tuesday 19 July 2011

And Speaking of Age

The cult of youth received a blow with the news of Rebekah Brooks's downfall. It is worth remembering that she was the youngest ever editor of a major British newspaper - and look what happened. Yah boo sucks, youth culters. It's time to show some respect to your elders and betters and stop pretending you know it all. Whatever else age brings, the knowledge that one never knows nearly enough is certainly a big part of the package.

7 comments:

  1. You are so right. But when I was young I knew this, and so did most other people, it seems to me. We understood that there is stuff you don't know. Now, it seems, many people don't know that there is stuff they don't (or should) know, or that such stuff could matter. This hubris is creating a lot of problems, I think. It's as if the much easier access to information has stopped people acquiring it - why bother, you can pick it up when you need it - thus they are not building it into knowledge, let alone allowing their knowledge to mature into wisdom.

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  2. Yep, absolutely. Brooks apparantly turned down the MPs' expenses leak because the story 'didn't have enough sex in it'. Ha!

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  3. Right. Look what age has done to steady Rupert Murdoch's judgment.

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  4. That's extreme age, George. Most people have been retired for 15-20 years by the time they get to Rupert's age.

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  5. Respect, M-H, that's what these young whipper snappers have lost. I suppose we may not have earned it though.
    Did she really do that, Gadjo? That is fantastic.
    George - at any age, Murdoch has lacked good judgment. Some people would say that he is not really a member of the human race.

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  6. Not so much respect for the person - that has to be earned. But an awareness that someone else might just know what's what, and the desire to go and find out. And it's not confined to younger people either. Murdoch is a good example of someone who doesn't know what he doesn't know, and doesn't even seem to think there's something else *to* know.

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  7. Although possibly he is just beginning to find out (and there is also the question of whether there are things he says he doesn't know but in fact he does know.

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