Professor
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- Messages
- 467
- Location
- San Bernardino Valley, California
The Little Old Lady from Pasadena has hit the nail on the head, people have to stop thinking their experience somehow outweighs another. We all have good and bad tales to tell, but this is not a competition to see whose woes are worse. I for one choose not to go into detail about my childhood, and it's offensive to me when someone with a few more years under their belt insists that I'm somehow ignorant of the world and its history.Miss Neecerie said:...when someone expresses an opinion that is not in keeping with one's own, many here feel that opinion somehow invalidates -their experience-, rather then recognizing that each persons experiences are their own and cannot be invalidated by what others think.
So then such posts are taken as almost an insult....rather than an academic discussion where all opinions are -valid...
In reference to comments about social competition, this is nothing new! It's precisely why people like myself are being criticized for a supposed lack of experience. It is a human tendency to seek validation, often at the expense of another. Class systems are a product of this, as is today's American economy of "haves" and "have nots", which itself is a regression to the Victorian era. Someone mentioned the concept of America becoming more "socialist"...truth is, America is not and never has been a pure democracy or capitalist economy. We are a democratic republic, and by their very nature our government and economy are socialist. It was economic policies that created a true and dominant middle class during the twentieth century. Now, a century later, people are angry again at corporate greed and political corruption, at being unemployed or underemployed and beholden to debt.
I may only be thirty, but I know what it is to be without, to endure suffering and remain faithful. I also know the respect and humility my ancestors instilled me with. And as someone else alluded to, age does not necessarily bring with it wisdom, some of the most ignorant fools I've met are older than me.