When I see the predominance of older men and women in the forefront of the turbulent mobs, behaving more like hooligans than dissenters with a valid position to advocate, it comes clear to me what the so-called “Tea Party” movement is all about. On the surface it appears to be a political group protesting the government’s growing involvement in our everyday life. But lacking any thoughtful rationale to warrant the sound and fury – the angry signs and vicious epithets so disturbingly racial and malevolently hateful – it becomes clear that something more than political dissent is the goad prompting the ugly displays. I think it’s an expression of the fear that infests older people when they feel reduced to irrelevancy by a technology-driven, youth-oriented culture. Terrified at being pushed to the margins of society they scream to be heard. Unfortunately, ramped up decibels are taking the place of measured dialogue. It’s completely illogical for seniors to scream that Obama is a socialist, followed with the next breath by howls that “he better not take away our MediCare.” And just what do the cries of “take back our country” mean? Obama was elected by a majority of voters, not secreted into power by an armed coup.
It’s often said, when you’re young you feel invulnerable. I guess by definition, when you’re old you feel quite the opposite, regardless of the reality. I understand that living as a retiree in today’s mad, mad world is disquieting. I too am a senior citizen who grew up in the depression followed by the unifying years of WWII; then benefiting in my prime to an unprecedented degree from the uplifting prosperity of the post-war years. So yes, because of this background I often feel detached from the cyber world that has replaced my comforting daily paper. But my dear fellow septenarians, being senior carries with it a responsibility to the generations that follow. We are their sages, the teachers, the philosophers with the perspective that only comes with age. We are betraying our societal task and subverting our patriarchal duty when we take to the streets with a bunker mentality, fearing attack from an enemy that doesn’t exist. This is not mature leadership. This is crackpot behavior fueled by illusions of a revisionist past. If we want our sons and daughters to respect us and continue to make space for us at the tables of influence we have to lead the dialogue, not follow the mob.
