Sciencism

Throughout human history, the younger generations looked up to the older generation for guidance. Now the elderly have been relegated to nursing homes and no one cares about them anymore. When did this shift take place and why?

I had a vague idea that something was wrong for a long time. But what happened last night brought this problem to my attention. I am an avid dancer, and I attend various workshops in different styles of folk dance. One of these is the scottish dance that is held on thursday nights at the church on the corner of Limestone Ave. and Grimes St. I was asked by them if I would be willing to dance in a display to be held at ANU's Burton & Garran building. They hinted that they needed me to be in it, so that the students there wouldn't get the wrong idea. I heartily consented, though I did pause for a bit because John Garden's "Raiders of the lost ark of dances" was also being held at the same time at St. Johns Church.

So, on the day I went to B&G and was immediately struck by how different the reality was from my expectations. But that's not what I would like to focus on right now. Some of the scottish dancers were late because they were attending a concert at the Government house. Those who did arrive on time were grouped together at the B&G entrance. They didn't want to come into the area where the students were milling about. They felt uncomfortable that they wouldn't "fit in" amongst the students. And so, they were grouped together at the entrance for more than an hour! The MC who was in charge of the multicultural night didn't even bother to encourage the group to come upstairs and mix with the students. I went upstairs and mixed with the students, being younger-looking than my 32 years. Because some of the dancers were very late, they decided to have the food and awards before the scottish dance. Again, the group was offered food, but only I went upstairs.

The dance itself went quite well. Everyone enjoyed it immensely. However, right after the dance, all the scottish dancers just made a beeline for the door. Why they left so suddenly could be due to many reasons, one of which could be that they didn't "fit in" because they were too old. Or perhaps it was just very late and had to return home. But I think they could have stayed for a few minutes, to answer questions or evangelize about scottish dancing, or something.

I stayed, to see if the bollywood dancing was any good (it wasn't, because only one small lone speaker struggled to put out a decent amount of sound.. unfortunately it didn't quite succeed).

During the drive home I thought about this. I am sharing this with you, in the hopes that it will make you think and force you to confront this issue in your life.