It is true that we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.
Leviticus 32 says: “You shall rise before the aged and show deference to the old, you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.” I have been thinking about these words and the whole of Leviticus which seems primarily about the rituals prescribing how sacrifices are done. I have a predicament. If we begin at the beginning in Genesis and follow the story of how a small group of Semites became chosen by God to follow COMMANDMENTS, you have to wonder about certain problems as the story unfolds. We are presented with contradictions and conflicts between the ages.
My initial problem, now that I am old, deals with the indignities age brings. Instead of younger people deferring to me such as giving up a seat, and not knocking me over, they run heedlessly of consequences. I would expect respect when I utter some pronouncement that seems odd. The problem begins with this God that Jews worship. There are no other gods and there is no trinity and so forth. God is aged, much more so than any of those ancestors of ours blessed or cursed with longevity. So, I suppose we should give this elder the due that comes with being a progenitor and certainly the respect that is due the creator of this world in which we live. Do I deserve respect? Where is mine? Why have we forgotten the aged?
The problem I have is the same as that which afflicts all thinking persons. How can you respect age when that age become senile and the once heroic and seemingly indestructible parent falls apart in front of your eyes? What about the rules that parents made for you and that you tried to follow even when you could see that they did not in any way relate to the way you live your life? We are faced with a problem of respect demanded and respect earned only because the former is taught so that it becomes automatic and questioning is out of line. Most groups grapple with a graying and aging population; the younger is pitted against the older.
In this new 21st Century we seem to have arrived at a point where there is disrespect for founders of a Liberal society. This society gave respect to the aged, the worker and the infirm and there is no thought that it is disrespectful to that generation and no thought is given to the misery that is implicit in the new rules that are being turned out one after the other in complete disregard for traditions and age-old truisms – we should respect our elders and the sick, the poor and so forth.
I find that I can give no respect for the young man who disrespects me while dismantling the protections we properly have come to consider entitlements. We are faced with having to rebuild, once again, that which those before us found so hard to construct.