<i>The society where &quot;elders&quot; were regarded as wells of wisdom probably never existed.</i><p>Not true. Traditional Asian societies take the other extreme and venerate age (probably more than they should, but that&#x27;s another topic). Hence, you have 90-year-old patriarchs calling shots in family businesses, and middle-aged men whose parents were still alive were traditionally considered still adolescent. Also, not taking care of your parents is a jailable crime in China.<p><i>In every society but our own, women after 40 were considered very old.</i><p>I&#x27;m a man under 40, so this may not be my fight, but... Fuck. That. Shit. While it is true that middle-aged, unmarried women were once considered undesirable and suspect, that was in societies in which urinating at the dinner table was socially acceptable, childbirth meant a 1-in-25 chance of dying, indoor plumbing didn&#x27;t exist, and tuberculosis was a death sentence.<p><i>She should be happy to be alive instead of complaining about young people being young.</i><p>She&#x27;s not complaining about young people being young. She&#x27;s complaining about people (often with no reference to their age) being stupid. Not all young people are stupid.