About five years ago, I documented the following observations on the subject of wisdom and old age:
That people inevitably grow wiser as they age is a cliché and a misconception. More often than not, my life experience has revealed the opposite to be the case. Most people I know from the older generations have not accrued an ounce of wisdom as they have aged. In fact, a considerable number have gone in the opposite direction and have become increasingly foolish and stupid as they entered or waded deeper into their senior years.
It goes without saying that I am not referring to those suffering from some form of age-related mental decline or those battling dementia or Alzheimer’s, but to men and women in their sixties, seventies, and beyond who still possess all their mental faculties yet seem utterly incapable or ruthlessly uninterested in re-examining their assumptions or re-assessing the core of their beliefs against the backdrop of their experiences.
The excerpt above is from a 2019 post in which I ultimately identified old leftists as the worst exemplifiers of un-wisdom in old age; however, the events of 2020–2022 made it clear that the lack of wisdom in old age applies to virtually everyone in their sixties, seventies, and beyond, regardless of political leaning, lived experience, or professed faith.
Wisdom denotes “knowledge, learning, and experience,” and can be extended to include attributes like “learned, sagacious, cunning; sane; prudent, discreet; experienced; having the power of discerning and judging rightly.”
I don’t know about you, but nearly all the old people I know, or encounter, display a glaring absence of any of the above attributes. So much for accruing wisdom via experience over the years, which makes me wonder why wisdom has all but disappeared from this mortal coil.
I sense our current wisdom void in the West connects directly with the mass despiritualization or faux spiritualization of Western people over the past half-century or so; a process that also elevated the ego to fantastic heights.
Wisdom seems to possess a deeper spiritual quality than intelligence, suggesting that a shallow spirit entails shallow wisdom. Activating or accessing wisdom seems to require a direct connection to the true self. Without that, wisdom is little more than soap bubbles and fairy dust.
To sum up, very few people appear capable of learning from experience anymore.
The Age of the Sage appears to be behind us. Well behind us.
That people inevitably grow wiser as they age is a cliché and a misconception. More often than not, my life experience has revealed the opposite to be the case. Most people I know from the older generations have not accrued an ounce of wisdom as they have aged. In fact, a considerable number have gone in the opposite direction and have become increasingly foolish and stupid as they entered or waded deeper into their senior years.
It goes without saying that I am not referring to those suffering from some form of age-related mental decline or those battling dementia or Alzheimer’s, but to men and women in their sixties, seventies, and beyond who still possess all their mental faculties yet seem utterly incapable or ruthlessly uninterested in re-examining their assumptions or re-assessing the core of their beliefs against the backdrop of their experiences.
The excerpt above is from a 2019 post in which I ultimately identified old leftists as the worst exemplifiers of un-wisdom in old age; however, the events of 2020–2022 made it clear that the lack of wisdom in old age applies to virtually everyone in their sixties, seventies, and beyond, regardless of political leaning, lived experience, or professed faith.
Wisdom denotes “knowledge, learning, and experience,” and can be extended to include attributes like “learned, sagacious, cunning; sane; prudent, discreet; experienced; having the power of discerning and judging rightly.”
I don’t know about you, but nearly all the old people I know, or encounter, display a glaring absence of any of the above attributes. So much for accruing wisdom via experience over the years, which makes me wonder why wisdom has all but disappeared from this mortal coil.
I sense our current wisdom void in the West connects directly with the mass despiritualization or faux spiritualization of Western people over the past half-century or so; a process that also elevated the ego to fantastic heights.
Wisdom seems to possess a deeper spiritual quality than intelligence, suggesting that a shallow spirit entails shallow wisdom. Activating or accessing wisdom seems to require a direct connection to the true self. Without that, wisdom is little more than soap bubbles and fairy dust.
To sum up, very few people appear capable of learning from experience anymore.
The Age of the Sage appears to be behind us. Well behind us.
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