Young or Old?

I have heard that Vajpayee was a communist in his early days and only later he came out and joined other parties. So were Gujral and many other leaders.

This is what some people say - "People are generally very emotional in youth. Heart rules over mind. They take aggressive decisions and go after what they want. Right or wrong, they are strong. They don't think about things from all perspectives. But, elders think coolly and rationally so they come out with the best decisions. They know the tricks of all trades because they have seen the world and they are more seasoned!".

Is it to be called seasoning or bluntness? Have their minds become seasoned or lost their sharpness and become blunt? A youngster who wants to change the society, getting drowned in selfish thinking and becoming pessimistic over time is a result of the seasoning process or blunting process?

There is a quote of someone, which says, "Any man who is not a communist at the age of twenty is a fool and any man who is still a communist at the age of fifty is an even bigger one!". Why? A man who is intolerant about the injustice that is meted out to a fellow human being becomes tolerant at the age of fifty. Is it because of the seasoning process? Or because of the repeated exposure to the same thing over and over again makes him numb to such things over time?

So, the social revolutions have to be lead by youngsters. Only they have the courage, conviction and intolerance. Only they can cry while looking at someone's suffering. Only they keep the humanness alive in them. We have plenty of examples to prove this.

* From the 1998 diary...

Comments

  1. Sujatha SathyaDecember 21, 2011 7:03 PM

    thought-provoking.
    i think you may be right when you say over-exposure does make one stoic & numb. but youngsters are far more reactive to injustice & cruelty.
    i had read somewhere that the more distant a tragedy is the less we feel its impact or the less we are moved by it. Ex: if earthquake happens in Delhi v/s Blore v/s in my road. my capacity to feel the pain increases ten-fold the closer the tragedy is to me in terms of physical distance itself.

    i guess age has a similar working pattern.
    and the quote that someone at 50 is a bigger fool if he still remains a communist is just so... makes us wonder

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bharathi Raja RDecember 21, 2011 9:43 PM

    Thanks for spending your time on all my old posts, Sujatha. True. Agree with you on the distance factor influencing the pain. Yes, it is a similar thing. The oldies look at a lot of such things over a period and get used to it.

    ReplyDelete

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