Do you believe that if someone is older that they are more wiser or still foolish?

Question

This has nothing to do with respecting your elders, you should always respect your elders no matter what, whether you hate them or not.

Answer 1

YES YOU MUST RESPECT YOUR ELDER BECAUSE THEY HAVE GIVEN YOU BIRTH AND MAKE YOU CAPABLE TO LOOK FOR THEIR MISTAKES.

Answer 2

Wisdom is a function of experience.
Intelligence is a function of knowledge.

If a person has a lot of experience in then they are wise about it. Clearly the longer they have been doing it then the more information they pick up so their wisdom grows.

I served 8 years in the US Army so I am very wise in the ways of the Army, and a little wise in the ways of the other armed services. I have no experience with Mossad, the Israel Intelligence organization; therefore I am not very wise about Mossad.

One of the best teachers of experience is a person's mistakes. I went through a bankruptcy so I am wise about that. I know the mistakes that lead to it and how the procedure works, I also know about what it does to your credit rating. Therefore when I warn someone about the dangers of credit card abuse, it is because I am very wise about it.

However, if I bought a home, which I have never done before, then I could easily make some foolish mistakes. I would look to my relatives who have bought and sold a house for advice. Although they are much younger than I am in this case they are wiser.

On the general questions about life, handling credit, and so many other things the average elderly person is wise. They have been through the experiences and made a few mistakes. All of this experience has made them wise. But, don't ask them about how to use a computer program. Some could have trained or learned enough to know, but most of the elderly don't have that much computer experience. They could use email and make a mistake by falling for a phishing scam. They don't have experience in that area or much training or education about it.

In prehistorical societies the old were the repository for the tribe’s knowledge. They didn’t have writing so the only way the tribe’s knowledge could be conserved would be in the memory of the old. This made old people a respected and contributing members of society. Back then 40 was considered very old, so problems like failing memories weren’t a big factor. This is where the tradition of honoring your elders and looking to them for advice and knowledge started.

The Norse were famous for their sagas, long stories. It was often the duty of one member of the tribe to memorized the sagas and recite them on special occasions or when they are asked about something that a saga covers. The older they got the more sagas they could memorize. These sagas were stories filled with ideas like Thunder is caused by the God Thor using his hammer, and that ravens were to be respected since they are the source of Oden’s great wisdom. Sagas could also be used to tell when it is the right time to plant or harvest the crops, when the storm season comes and so on. To a people that had no calendars this was a great boon making the Sagas (and those that told them) important to Norse society.

It is still a respected position; to be and elderly person. They are a great resource of knowledge and wisdom. The Israeli Memory project is trying to preserve some of this wisdom by talking with survivors of the Holocaust. This knowledge of man’s inhumanity to man is too valuable to lose. The survivors are all elderly by now; so one great contribution they can make to society is to tell their stories.

Answer 3

It depends on the person. Older doesn't necessarily mean wiser. I've known people in their 50's who still haven't gotten their crud together, and people in their 20's who have their crud together. I've met older people who have less life experience than some individuals younger than them.

For example: Take two 30-something-year-old women.

The first is 34, lives in a good sized city, and has traveled extensively (both in the States and abroad), has had a career that put her in positions to present at seminars and meet a large variety of people. She has been independent for most of her adult life, but recently married.

The second woman is a few months older than the first. She lives in a small town and has only traveled outside the state she lives in once or twice in her life. She has never really been independent and has always had someone to financially support her. Her jobs have been varied and sporadic.

Who has more life experience and has likely gained some wisdom? The first woman - who has lived a little more? Or the second who really hasn't gone outside her box?

Personally, I'd say the first is likely a bit wiser, even though she's a few months younger.

Answer 4

I wish people would stop generalizing everything. You can't do that and be a righteous judge of matters.

Just judge each person individually and not by any stereotype. Old, young, middle aged... Everyone has the ability to be wise or foolish. I've seen 14 year olds that are wiser than some 40 year olds and I've seen some 80 year olds with more sense than young people give them credit for.

The advantage that older people have is that they "generally" have more experiences. That also would depend on how you grew up. But just because you experience more, doesn't mean you're wiser for it. Unless you have the ability to learn from your experiences, your experiences can destroy your perception of reality.

True wisdom comes from God and it is not prejudiced to age.

Answer 5

It all depends how stubborn they are when it comes to accepting the lessons of life, because Lessons in life are repeated until they are learned. It is the inevitable fate of all things big, and small, good, and evil. In time we all learn our place in the majestic plan of destiny. Some learn sooner than others, and are considered to be much more fortunate than those who are tossed about the oceans of life without being anchored into anything. Our lives are but a minuscule matter in the endless universe, yet they were put into existence for a reason. A reason that we may not discover, even in the lifetime we have been granted. Perhaps, abiding in good faith, that in some way such things shall be revealed to us in the afterlife. So in short, whether or not they choose to learn from their past mistakes, they still have the experience of actually making those mistakes, and can share with you how it feels to cope with the consequences of their actions.

Answer 6

Depends on the individual, being older doesn't always mean being wiser. There is no respect for elders in the uk anymore.

Answer 7

In some things they may be but in other things they may not be ,,, Do you think a 19 year old may be a little wiser than a 10 year old , did you know a woman of 27 is old in the modeling carreer

Answer 8

There are as many old fools as there are young fools. Are you going to respect the elder that abuses you or harms you in some other way? Of course not.

Answer 9

Some wiser
Some foolish
Today young people don't like wisdom(especially of elders) and therefore face many of life's pitfalls unnecessarily.
Romans 10
proverbs
click my avatar for more bible verses(wisdom)

Answer 10

It depends. Even though they are older, they have seen the consequences of choices they have made in the past. If they make better decisions because of the consequences, then they are wiser. However, if they make the same choice and deal with the same consequences despite previous knowlege, then they are foolish.

Answer 11

It depends on the person. I've seen teenagers that are more responsible than middle-aged people and vice versa.
Most of the time though you'll find that older people are more mature because they've lived through more of life's experiences, especially hard times. Those really make a person grow and mature.