I'm Old

Therefore I suck, says the New York Times.

I’m sure my friends are tired of hearing me whine about the hostility I face regularly for walking though my liberal college town wearing a business suit, my short hair neatly parted, shoes shined, and other apparently offensive visual signs that I am not one of the collectivist masses. One lawyer whom I know told me that all the attorneys dress “bummy” to get to their offices, then put on their suits to receive their clients “so they don’t get hassled in the streets”.

Let that sink in. Lawyers backing away from a situation where they could sue. This is the state of things.

Although I am chronologically older than most people I pass on the sidewalk, I don’t really perceive of myself as “old”. I think I’m mentally youthful. When I get one of those looks, I want to shout, “Hey, I just listened to some Ramones records last night!”

Then I remembered that the Ramones are old, and dead.

But if my personal style, assumed to be parallel with my politics (although in this case it is), has now become a trifle in the social divide. It is the very fact that I am a senior citizen at all that marks me as a bad guy.

Matt Taibbi has written a piece exposing a Yale law professor’s upcoming book in which he argues that my generation has unfairly accumulated wealth (my generation excludes me on this point) and need to have it taken away from them. I hope you will give it a short read.

New York Times: Old People Suck and We Should Take Their Stuff