Took this from my blog. Would love to have a conversation about it:
We Don’t Need Another Elder
One of the elements of culture commonly discussed in rewilding involves this notion of “elders,†specifically their purpose in an indigenous context. The concept of elders has not evaded civilized cultures entirely (the word originating through Christianity) though the “elders†in civilization teach a very different structure than those of indigenous peoples.
To call an elder simply an old person with wisdom, does little justice to what elders actually do. “Wisdom†varies from world view to world view. In a world based on direct experiences in a particular landbase, elders would have the most time spent observing that land through their years. It makes sense that they would hold the key to cultural transmission. Elders occur more organically from that kind of system. They do not force their knowledge or perception of the land on people younger than them. The younger people merely realize these older people can give them insights into how to live on that particular piece of land, in that particular way. In a way of life that continually destroys its landbase, we can rest assured that the “elders†have no land-based wisdom.
In rewilding, often we hear that we need elders; that elders help keep their communities intact. We know that a tactic of white civilizationists, used to assimilate Native Americans involved removing the young from their elders. So an elder from a natives perspective, does not look like someone with generic “wisdom,†but someone with a special kind of wisdom that relates to living closely with their particular landbase.
Noticing that some elderly people in civilization do not have special, landbase wise qualities, and do not act as keepers of a sustainable culture, people have made the distinction between these civilized “Olders†and native “Elders.â€Â
I find it funny when older people use the phrase, “You act childish.†Children have a nature of their own for sure, but mostly they mimic the adults and culture around them. So they act out how they see their parents act. They reenact their parents. Therefore, children don’t act childish, they act adultish. And as children have proved… most adults seem to act like crazy, controlling assholes.
What happens when you take a bunch of crazy, controlling asshole-olders and tell them they need to live as elders? All hell breaks loose. I have noticed that within a culture based on domination it seems all too easy to simply project domination onto an egalitarian system and call it egalitarian. Without fully articulating an elder’s social position, we see a bunch of olders who now think of themselves as elders. I only know one word to describe such a person; a fraud.
I see olders adultishly attempt to market themselves as elders the way nerdy children in middle school flounder while trying to act “cool†(myself included there). Rather than have comfort with themselves, olders want to have something they don’t. They can fake it for a while, but in the end it will bite them in the ass, when the younger people realize they have been deceived by the olders and take their friendship away, leaving the older worse off than before. Rich, childless olders seem the like the worst of this batch. They can’t even hold a conversation with someone younger than them without pointing out their age, as if positioning themselves into a place of power. And there you have it. To olders, people within a domination-based civilization, an elder looks to them like someone in a position of power. Power the older never had. And when young people buy into that… The results look disastrous, let me tell you!
I have seen no one project this hierarchical version of elders as much as the Wilderness Awareness School and its creator Jon Young, who constantly refers to elders as “the over 50 crowd,†as though the age of 50 signifies something. Perhaps in the cultures he’s studied with, but it does not apply to civilization’s olders… at all. His Art of Mentoring has produced many vampiric olders who seek nothing but power. The kind of advice they give you? “Get a job.†I find this laughable, until they start trying to suck my blood!
Both olders and elders remain defined through age. Ageism, prejudice based on age (both towards old and young alike), works as one of the most common and invisible prejudices within civilization. I can’t tell you how many times someone has told said to me, “You have wisdom beyond your years,†and, “You act so wise for your age,†and the worst, “You must have an old soul.â€Â
Age does not dictate experience. Experience dictates experience. Age relates to experiences since the more you age, the more experiences you have. However, the kinds of experiences you have determine what you know, how you know, what you have learned from certain experiences. Experience foundations wisdom, not age. Age relates to wisdom only as far as the number of possible experiences.
You can see the blatant ageism when I change these common “compliments†a little:
“You act wise for having black skin.†“You must have a white soul.â€Â
It seems like older people feel entitled to praise & respect from youth, despite their potential lack of experiences or wisdom over the youth. I feel both terms olders and elders inadequately translate within civilizations hierarchical structures and I think we need a new word to more accurately describe what function an elder serves.
If experience foundations wisdom, and indigenous cultures worked well at regulating experiences through yearly rituals, it makes sense that they would have a group of people who had reached a certain age and had gone through all of the same rituals and rites and shared similar experiences that the youth had not yet undergone. The group we refer to as elders became members of that group not because they aged, but because they went through similar rituals together on a particular piece of land and then led those rituals for the younger people.
If we understand that an elder means someone who has gone through many rites and rituals, and has had experiences that we know we will have one day, it makes sense that they would know and feel things beyond our recognition. Since civilization has such a vastness of (or more accurately lack of) experiences and a complete disconnection from the land and from the self, we cannot produce elders the way indigenous cultures did. It means that elders happens organically as cultures get more specific and congeal on a particular piece of land.
If we see how age creates an elder in this kind of indigenous culture, and how age relates to power within civilization, we can easily see how a civilized person would project their world view onto another’s. The term elder does not allude to an unarticulated hierarchical structure, with which elders sit atop. If elders get some sort of special treatment, in involves their dependency on the younger. I don’t get an elder a plate of food because they have a special status in a hierarchy, but because they have trouble walking. It almost seems as if their powerlessness in physicality has given them power in sociality and/or spirituality. This leads to another quality of an elder; humility. It seems that elders carry humility, both because of years of nature tricking them and also because, like children, they require help from people younger and healthier than they.
The age of seeking elders ended for me a few years ago after receiving many burns from olders. If the term elder refers to someone with humility that has gone through experiences I want to go through, who has rewilded in my particular bioregion and has wisdom of living in it over a long period of time, well… none exist. Bits and pieces of wisdom exist here and there in different people and in books. I use those to create my future. Perhaps someday we’ll have elders again, but it will probably just happen without anyone noticing the change. I think the key to having a successful culture does not involve mimicking what we see natives doing, but truly understanding how their cultures functioned. A highly-functional culture produces elders who than teach the young how to have a highly-functional culture. In a world without elders, I don’t think rewilding humans need not try to act like them or fill in their social position. I think we need to learn how to live off the land. Those who experiment living with the land, regardless of their age reveal the people that I have something to learn from. And when these people have aged with the land and have much knowledge and experience, if they have young people who want to know how to follow in their footsteps, and these young people help the older person get food because they no longer can get it themselves, we’ll know we’ve got an elder.
