Ageism: Oldies vs Youngsters

[Lightspeed]

I’m an older (middle aged) member of this forum, and I’m saddened by the degree of ageism I see on here, day after day.

And I'm embarrassed that its not ageism of the younger generations against us oldies, but the other way around.

Is it just me or has anyone else reflected on how few under 40s are active on here? I’m in my mid-fifties and I’m estimating that more than 70% of folk on here are in my age group, or above.

So why the fuck are us oldies prepping? Frankly we’re genetically past our sell by dates. Our best years are behind us, and ahead we will have to work harder and harder to keep up with the pace, be that technological or physical. Our only assets are accumulated knowledge experience, and wealth.

For me and my wife, there is a single overriding reason for prepping : To provide a safe place for the younger members of our family ( Children and hopefully one day grandchildren) to ride out the worst of any major collapse, and for them to come out the other side in a fit state to participate in whatever renaissance comes to pass. Our role in this is nurture and support. Its an extension of our parenting, if you like.

Its true that, we get advantage from our preps when they are handy to overcome short term disturbance to modern living. But this is just common sense.

Its also true that we enjoy using our little house as a weekend and holiday retreat, and are enjoying the process of configuring it to be able to survive prolonged periods off grid.

We do not see much point in our generation prepping unless it is to ensure the continuation of our DNA in future generations. We can do that by either looking after our children and our children’s children, helping other younger people. Others will have different reasons. I’d be interested to hear what they are?

Some of us in middle age and even more senior age need to remember that we were young once, brimming with ideas on how things could be better done. I know for my part that most of my new ideas were complete rubbish, but some were valid and did indeed improve things. It was my respected, respectful and smart seniors who listened to my crazy ideas, humoured and encouraged me to keep coming up with them, and ultimately helped sort the viable ideas from the wastes of time.

Hopefully I can copy those that had my respect in the past, by encouraging new ideas and helping sift the good ones from the less good.

We can all learn from one another ( certainly I do: for example, almost every day I thank Binnie for his advice on Bump Caps…something I’d never heard of before, but which I wear all the time now. If you were to see the degree of scuffing and denting on mine, you’d realise how much pain I’ve averted thanks to that simple bit of advice. Thanks Bin.)

Ageism and disrespect will get us nowhere. We all want to be respected, but we should not make the mistake in thinking that superior intellect or superior age automatically ensure the respect of others. If we want to be respected we need to do two things. First show respect to others, and secondly to behave in a way that is worthy of others respect.

With respect…. I look forward to comments:-)