Not always… some youngsters are wiser than their elders who seem to have no common sense whatsoever, but that’s today’s London youths for you… wise beyond their years.
When I was sixteen, my father was the most ignorant man in the world. By the time I reached 21, I was surprised at how much he had learned in five years. Mark Twain
It depends if you are actually learning as you age or hunkering down for fitting in, giving up your desires and nestling nicely in a coffin or, I mean, an unpstanding or cool role in society.
The minute you give up your curiosity and cease to learn, you’re already dead. There are way too many who refuse to stop taking up space, breathing our air, and wasting our time. The problem with gaining all that experiential ‘wisdom’ is that it slowly becomes a mulch pile. Vital wisdom is letting all that knowing go and being open to new experience. That’s why so many of us remain stupid.
I was curious if anyone would differentiate the difference between experience and wisdom. You were the first to bite! Care to elaborate on this difference though?
Experience comes with being alive. Staring at TV snow is experience.
Knowledge may or may not come from specific experiences. Probably some minimal learning takes place when one is drunk and staring at TV snow. But it would be less than other experiences, most likely.
Knowledge: information, facts and skills about the world.
Wisdom: meta-knowledge, often primarily about oneself.
Experience: I found myself drunk watching TV snow.
Knowledge: This was boring. TV snow is a bit like snow, but not really. I wished I was elsewhere.
Wisdom: Some urges I have can lead to experiences I find less than satisfying. I actually remember just as I was reaching for the second shot, a nagging fear that I was going to regret getting drunk, but I pushing this fear aside. I think in the future I will not push this fear aside and see if this leads to more positive experiences.
Next door another guy just stares at TV snow. Feels bad, but learns nothing. Does the same thing the next night.
Age brings with it experience, experience being essential to wisdom as far as I’m concerned, but if an individual lacks the ability, or will to reflect on their experience then they will more than likely lack wisdom.
Now, Xunxian thinks otherwise, and he has an Asian dude as an avatar, so I’m going to let rip on a tangent. A lot of old dudes are ignorant arseholes, and after having lived in a culture which bestows respect upon them regardless of them being either ignorant or aware they think they’re entitled to unquestioned respect. Which is what wisdom deserves; not age. So, fuck the old ignorant pricks and let them die alone!