Tuesday, January 25, 2011

A World at Arms

My co-editor, bless his soul, has encouraged me post. Here goes:

I'm watching the State of the Union address, streaming on CNN.com. I was struck, watching President Obama enter the chamber, by how old our government is. They wear their age on their faces in lines and crows' feet. They wear gray suits, but these don't match their hair; it is white. They wear jowls under their chins like a badge of honor, and indeed they are the price of admission to Congress.

What is the defining quality of the old? Is it wisdom, or is it inflexibility? See here the fascinating Wall Street Journal chart on the average ages of Congressmen since 1949. It's going up. What conclusion can we draw from this? Are these old men and women sage, or simply saturnine? And what does it say about us that we young tolerate the domination of our country by the old?

No comments:

Post a Comment