The Sins of the Elderly

While i was checking up on this title that i chose for my usage in this writing,in the internet, lest somebody else had used it and perhaps talked about the same thing as mine, I came across an article that was exactly it.I hesitated at first,should i change the title? But, it was not for long,when i made myself to click on the link and read about it. Apparently,the author was not saying about "sins" literally but some health-related problems when one arrived at his old age. Visual and memory impairments,muscle weakness and other ilnesses. This ,somewhat, gave me a relief because what I am about to say is not some health-related ilness but "sins" in its literal sense and a foremost one, the moral-related illness.


I find that this discourse has a very close relation to my dispositions as I personally experience the sickness of these "sins" towards me throughout my life and it is ubiquitous.Since i was a kid,I had had this thought where I questioned to myself on how adults act,think and on what base do they use to dictate us. Is there any definite concept or a system which could make me understand the way they behave and maybe by understanding it beforehand,in a hope that the quicker I learn and think like an adult, the better person I will become. To my frustration, I found that most of their advices and the so called wise words are consist of nothing but untraceable repetitions of someone else's words regardless they understand it and come to terms to any of the word they say.


There are not many who could give me what I really need to face the reality of life. Something that I could grasp its root and hold it for the rest of my life. Every now and then I find contradictions and non absolutes that make me doubt of their words and do nothing but to discard them. What I need are not percepts but concepts,someone who can help me build and construct my concepts properly as my kit for survival. I can be an independent man. What did I resort to? I take it that I have to find my own way, myself.


Like I said earlier,my concern in this entry regards morality. Morality is an abstract, not concrete,conceptual code of values and principles. Here, three keywords one has to take into considerations in order to understand morality. Abstract, concepts and values. For those who have no idea as to what is abstract and what is concrete, this is not the place where you would find the answer. I will not discuss it here. Without morality, a person would have a difficult time in determining every actions he has to take in a given circumstance. However,to regard every single information as a new thing without any intergration is impossible to man, because we are equipped with a conceptual thinking. Thus,the issue arises is not whether one possess or not a concept, but rather how one organize and sculpture it.


Hence, this brings us to the question of what is a concept?


 A concept is a mental intergration of two or more units which are isolated by a process of abstraction and united by a specific definition. From our first moment of confrontation with the world, our mind takes in information which it perceives through our senses, incorporates it in different slots depending on the specific characteristics and builds the
concept wider and wider as we continue our lives.


There are two items which conceptual thinking consist of, or rather its method of formation. Cognitive and normative abstractions. Cognitive province deals with the identification of the facts of reality, while, normative abstractions is an evaluating system of it that will help a man to adjudicate the proper course of actions he should take based on the calculations of values. Thus, the first kind of abstraction forms what is known as epistemology of science and the latter, of ethics, morality and of art.


A child, whose lacking of a proper metaphysical and well-prescribed philosophical system, will only depends on his sense of life as it is a pre-conceptual equivalent to metaphysics. During his development into a full adult, he will learn to systemize and organize his knowledge of the world aided by both the abstractions. Sadly enough, in today's world, not only his cognitive faculty is assisted to some minimal extent,and yet no help is offered to him on how he should manage his normative abstraction save many attempts to cripple and stunt its growth.


Why do I say this?  


Look at our conventional morality, how its concrete-bound method of thinking blocks a man to think of what kind of man he ought to be and why. Some consists of incomprehensible rules, others are depressing prohibitions. It doesnt concern with the formation of a child's character. "Dont make friend with him", "You have to go to Miss Lina's wedding", "You have to listen to Mr Ben". There was a time, while resting on my couch, thinking about this misery of unfathomable set of rules and duties, I came with a thought, that, maybe people didnt know how to see things abstractly, every thing was taken concretely, thus it resulted in many misunderstandings and contradictions. I was unsure of this notion but I kept it in my mind until i found a validation of it in one of Ayn Rand's writing.


Go and try to ask any adults (parents,teachers,relatives etc) , when they are trying to dictate you. See that they will be arrested when been thrown with the questions of how's and why's. What they could only say is " That's how life is" without any further explanations. Its such a shame spectacle when an adult who claim to know what life and reality is, and belittle us by saying that we are 'lacking of experience', could not tell and show us a well-defined and comprehensible conceptions that are clear from contradictions and confusions. This is one of the biggest sin of the elderly, the demolition of child's normative abstractions.


As a final recourse, a child would take the other alternative, which is amoral resignation, after unaccountable numbers of exhaustion of not given the chance to form his own thinking and abstractions, he develops one of the destructive emotions that dominates him : fear. From a child's fear, fear of others especially adults, you can see later on in his life, growing as an adult, he is afraid, afraid of being a man, of independence, of responsibilities and of loneliness. He is used to repress his values and neglect what to him is important and eventually gives up. He gives up to put effort on valuing and judging. Aren't we always hear people say, "Dont judge!", "Stop being judgemental", "This is a non-judgemental circle". To avoid judgement is to surrender your mind to any unfathomable abyssal clouds.


Don't be shocked to find a wimpy person whose face bares no sparks of lifeness, only lines of emptiness, who stands in front of you yet fails to give you any suggestions to his existence and his sense of life. His personality and ultimately his mind is of full of others. He is others. There is no he. He doesnt exist.


Im particularly indignant to phrases like " You still young, you dont know what life is like", "We are older and experienced, you should listen to us", "Wait till you grow up and see". Apart from parents and relatives, these words were used out loud by our teachers at school, trying to inculcate in our mind that the older the better, youngsters should listen to them albeit your mind tells you some thing else. I just wanted to ask, of whose life you are talking about? Mine or yours? Do we experience the same thing? If not, then, how can you claim that you know what is the outcome of others' lives?  Till now, most of their advices ceased to work for me. Where now, when you said earlier that your advices would be used till our old age? Two or three years and my mind can already invalidate it. Or maybe i have arrived my 'old age' and i have to form a new concept? This is such a joke.


What are these adults trying to do is to extinguish the fire out from inside us, to wipe the sparks away from our burning eyes. An ambitious kid who talks about what or who he wanted to be, regardless its a cowboy, a superhero or a detective, were slapped by the notion that says "Its such a waste of time", "You dont have to be like that, this is just enough", "Live an ordinary life". He will cringe and defeatably drop his virtous ambition down, believing that a life like what he dreamt of, not only impossible but ridiculous.


A memory which is still fresh in my head, when two or three years ago, I was looking for my professor to ask him some crucial questions regarding my subject. I was so eager at that time and I heartily intented to bring this subject to a deeper understanding. As i was asking her the questions, she barred me with her saying, "It is enough to know this, you dont need to know more". I dont know what is more evil than this. Honestly, this crushed me down badly and it was when I started to believe and depend on myself only.


Addressing all the adults out there, mothers, fathers, teachers, seniors,  witness this!
What kind of sins that have you done to us? To the new generation?


For those who thinks there is still time for you to recheck your value-premises from scratch, from the start, dont doubt any longer. Your life depends on it. Dont let yourself astray until the fire gone out into a hopeless whitehead oldman who can do nothing about himself but expecting a sweet delicious heaven awaits him afterlife.