Mechanisms of Change in Society; You're Just Young vs. You're Just Old
Written by John Rozewicki   
Tuesday, 01 August 2006

Worst Dinner Party Guest Ever

I get into arguments a lot. Not angry ones, but passionate ones about politics. Politics is a very broad term for me. I define it as anything concerning how a society decides what's important and affects change. So, for me, nearly every argument I have is about politics in some way. I don't tend to hang around with very many people my age. I would like to think it's because I'm smarter and more mature than they are. More likely is that it's because I'm more than a little cynical. The majority of the arguments I get into are with people who are older than I am.

Cyclical Trump Cards

I've noticed recently that when all logical, rational discussion has been exhausted the person I'm arguing with plays their trump card.
You're young. You'll wake up sooner or later. I did.
In the times that card has been played recently I've was taken aback by the fact that someone who had been engaging in a logical discussion 5 minutes ago could switch so fast to a style of discussion that is not only irrelevant but also very insulting. When this trump card is played the argument ceases to be about the subject of the argument and becomes more about the people having the argument. There is an answer to the statement quoted above.
Well, you're just older. How do you know I'm not part of a new wave of thinking?
Neither are logical in any way. They can't be tested and they do not concern the subject of the argument. But, both could be true and are interesting to think about in terms of how society changes over time. Looking back through just this past century we can break down the things each generation did differently.

An Illustrated Example

With people of my generation oral, for example, oral sex is quite common. If you talk to anybody older than about 40 they'll tell you that when they were growing up it was not seen as a common behavior. They'll be able to talk about when exactly they first heard about people doing it and how it was perceived. When it was coming into vogue it was seen as being more intimate than anything else. It was seen as something people who were already very close to each other did instead of the more common thinking today that it is a part of foreplay. Now imagine the argument between 2 people of different generations. The older side would say that it's a fad; that there have always been fads, and that a person will settle on more normal sexual behavior as they get older. The younger side will say that it's the new way; that after the older people are gone the majority of the population will believe the same things they do.

Time is on My Side

I think things like gay rights are similar issues. People of my generation who have more experience around people who are gay see them as equal people who deserve the same treatment. People of past generations see them as a marginal angry segment of society who don't deserve anything. Time will bear it out.

The Generation Gap

When we look back on how society used to be we always talk as if there was some significant consensus. Maybe there wasn't. I think it's highly likely there wasn't. If you could take a snapshot of society at any point in time you would see a de facto compromise between people of different generations. That's the definition of the generation gap. Society changes not because people become better across the board. People rarely stop believing things they've believed their whole lives. The mechanism for change in society is the literal death of the old and the literal birth of new. We should keep this in mind when discussing things with someone from a different generation.
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