Opus 2026-496: Role Reversal

I am sure that you have been in social situations where people have pulled out their phones and directed their attention toward the screen rather than listening to the conversation or actually participating.  When that first happened, it was the younger generation, it wasn’t pleasant, but it wasn’t unexpected.  What I’m finding now is that it is the adults, even the senior adults who are pulling out their phones and checking their email.  Of course, with the older ones it might just be looking for pictures of their grandchildren to show around the circle, but still, the phones come out and receive the attention.

To show you how virtuous I am and how I am above all this you need to know that when I go into church, I leave my phone in the car.  When I go to our Friday night gathering of some of the seniors for dinner, I leave my phone in the car.  So I just want you to know I’m better than the average bear.

What is interesting to me is that this tells me that there has been a role reversal in our society.  Originally it was the young people who were fixating on their phones.  The elders criticized and told them to put the phones away.  Now we have the elders being often the first ones to get their phones out and get fixated.  Who is setting an example for whom?

This trend of older people looking to the younger ones for approval is a relatively modern occurrence.  I think of church music as an example.  Back in the days of Beethoven and Mozart the church set the standard for what was great music.  I believe that Bach had to produce a original piece of music for every Sunday service.  It was the church that set the standard for what was musical and what was not.  Today we have just the opposite phenomenon.  If you go into your average church today, you see them trying to duplicate the musical performances of the pagan world.  You have guys on base guitar, grimacing in such a way that it seems like they’re having some kind of sexual experience.  You have a guy on the lead guitar, swaying and bumping and diving with the rhythm of what he’s doing and the entire group stopping and looking towards him in appreciation as he works through a riff.  That pattern was not developed by worship leaders concerned about praising God.  It was designed by musicians, consumed by ego, and wanting to have an audience appreciate their expertise.

Quite a role rehearsal.

How about fashion trends?  There was a day when people of the poor classes would look to imitate how their superiors dressed.  It didn’t work out too well but it was an attempt to look higher than you were.  Now who sets the trend?  Ghetto barbarians.  Who sets the way we talk?  Vulgar rap artist.  Who decides what is the kind of food that we should be eating?  Bean sprout adorers and tofu aficionados.  One of my moments of high entertainment is looking at the plates of so-called food served at high class events.  Most of what’s on the plate the average American would not recognize.  What you do recognize is something you would never eat unless your parents forced you when you were a child.  All in all, it’s the kind of stuff that you would’ve thrown away when you were preparing dinner at one point.  Now, because a bunch of crazy nutritionist say it’s good for you, you think it’s cool.

The train goes on.  I wonder if part of the problem is that we have more and more people living to greater and greater age.  There was a time when disease, accidents, war, and just a general failure of the body caused many people to die early.  Those who survived often were the lucky ones but also a factor was they learned their lessons and developed wisdom.  They graduated from the Marine Corps that charged the machine guns into the army that outflank them or called in air support.  I understand in warfare that most of the casualties come from the new guys on the line.  They haven’t learned to keep their heads down yet.  Socially that meant that we used to respect age and wisdom.  Now with so many people living into their 80s and 90s and relying on doctors to keep them alive, the wisdom aspect becomes questionable.

Is it any wonder that the younger people tend to think they know more than we do.  They haven’t had the arrogance beaten out of them yet and they don’t exactly have an example of people who have grown in grace and wisdom.

homo unius libri