Could Steemseniors be a Council of Wise People?
Senior people have time to think. They do not have to take any immediate decisions with a direct or future impact. However, they have the experience of having made decisions in the past that have led sometimes to successes, sometimes to failures. We senior people still have much to offer, and this on several levels. This follows @claudiop63 who wrote : "Steemseniors Could Be instrumental for Steemit's growth."
More junior people have dreams and big plans.
We would like to share these plans and help them to be realized.
A chain is only strong if every single chain link is well connected to the others. Any break at the level of any single link will ruin the entire chain and split it in several smaller pieces or bunches of chain links. What I mean here is that a society can only be built if the links between each generation are properly secured.
The future is built on the past like a house is built stone after stone, each stone relying on the former one to bear it. Each chain link can hence entirely rely on the strength of the previous one like each stone relies on the strength of previous stone to support it. Does it work similarly with generations of human beings?
Don’t we have rather an opposite tendency of demonizing the values of the past in order to promote the values of the present (and the future)?
Now a little story to illustrate my point.
I remember that during my youth (you can say that @grandpere rambles…), at the time of big the student protests of the 70ies, we also had a lot of ideals and dreams. We wanted to rebuild the society and the economy, we were questioning the teachings and the ways of doing things used in the past.
Following our protests, many changes have taken place both at the level of the thoughts and at the one of the technologies. I would not say that this is mainly due to our protests. It was rather a consequence of this time where factors converged from all across the planet. This is the era of socialism, communism, peace & Love, new technologies in communication and transportation. In short, several elements get combined at a specific time in human history.
I remember that at that time we did not like much any comment or observation from the elderlies. We were finding them outdated, old school, refusing to see the modern world and participate to the evolution of the society. Finally, they were part of the game but, at a much slower pace than the young guys.
We were convinced to know the truth, that we could change the world and make it a better place. Oopps… today’s speech is similar!
The current generation of young people seems to ignore the drastic changes that have been inferred by the discovery of oil, power plants, nuclear energy, etc, on our lives. All these technologies have increased agricultural and industrial production and free the man/women from repetitive and tedious tasks. Without these innovations and technologies, the way of living would be totally different from the current standards.
But at that time, we did not know anything about the impact on the economy and the environment. We had confidence in the future. Today, taking the example of energy, we are in a "green" mode following the pressures from environmentalists and ecologists. But do we know anything about the impact of wind and solar energy parks on future economies, climate and pollution.
Should we stop all developments on the grounds that we should know everything before undertaking an action?
This is of course not a solution. In both cases, we must think about what will be left for our children.
Perhaps is it more productive and effective to continue building the fabric of the society including its political and economical wings on the foundations of the past. In short, weld the chain links rather than split them.
Steemit, a link in evolution?
Steemit offers an enormous potential to integrate all fields of knowledge under one single platform. After getting rid of spam, abuse and copy-pasting, Steemit can provide a framework that promotes a form of respect for all different views, the development of a positive and constructive thinking, and could help broadcasting various new concepts simultaneously towards many cultures. Some pitfalls are yet to be overcome, and to achieve a goal, it is sometimes advantageous to circumvent a wall rather than trying to go through it!
A senior is an elder and/or a wise man/women.
We should perhaps first define what we mean by older and who are these guys? Often we define this concept by an age: 50+, 55+, 65+, 75+, etc. In some societies, they call them old, in some other, sages. We are often confused between being old and being wise, but someone is not wise because he is old and an elder guy is not necessarily wise.
Old?
In French, the word ‘ancient’ can have several meanings. In English, several words are however available to define the same concept: old, former, ancient, senior, elder, devancier (see [here])
Wise?
The French term ‘sage’ has again on several meanings: someone that has demonstrated reliability in its judgments, in his/her code of conduct, someone that is cautious, thoughtful, with an acute good sense, an enlightened man/women, someone who knows things, who has skills, whose way of life gets him/her away from a too quick decision-taking, someone in charge for analyzing a political or economic issue (see [here] or [there]. In contrast, English has only two words for all these concepts: wise man/women or wise.
Old people? There is a lot of them. Wise men/women? Maybe a little less. How can we know that we are wise? Our readers will tell us.
In the meantime, I would like to run a new Steemit project and propose the creation for a "Council of Elders" whose mission would be:
- to search for projects allowing for the development of knowledge and of the future;
- to encourage and stimulate discussion, or in other words, to avoid pot comments like "I voted for you" or “Congratulations for your post”;
- to seek for the truth, to debunk the false paradigms and to shatter paradoxal, false or incomplete statements.
Original text in french: @grandpere
English translation: @lemouth
Thank you to @claudiop63 for initiating this project and the Steemit chat : #steemseniors
Now we need to define its operating mode.
Thank you for giving me credit :-) I fully subscribe to your points, in particular regarding the need and usefulness of fostering links between generations, EVEN for highly innovative technology projects. This is quite obvious e.g. in the realm of scientific research...no brilliant young researcher would be arrogant (stupid) enough to think he can do without the review and advice from more experienced, "senior" ones...
Give back to Caesar what is Caesar's, especially for a Roman!
....and a Council of Wise Women ? ;-)
I am sure @grandpere meant "Wise People" ;-)
Thanks for pointing out. This is my mistake. Please read "men and women" everywhere you see "men" ;)
How to deflect a about? The purpose is Junior vs. Senior, not man vs women.
Unfortunately, there are many groups that will try to demand special attention nowdays...
Good article by the way, good luck on the project.
If you could only tell a young person three things (anything, really, like advice about life or a fable), what would they be?
Live your life. Let me share your projects and together we will help you achieve them. We want to be a mentor, not a stumbling block.