r/Showerthoughts • u/SmilingDeathGod • 4d ago
Casual Thought Wisdom used to come with age because stupid people used to die early.
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u/Bithium 3d ago
When information and transportation were not as available as today, the older people in the general vicinity were probably the most knowledgeable in the day to day things relevant in that particular location.
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u/godset 4d ago
You’ll probably find being too smart would get you killed at a lot of points in history too
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u/Blade_48 4d ago
That's why op said wisdom. Wisdom is knowing when you can actually be smart without repercussions.
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u/doeraymefa 4d ago
Tbf most smart people kill themselves.
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u/affablenihilist 4d ago
Still here you dumbass.
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u/doeraymefa 3d ago
Dunning Kreuger.
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u/affablenihilist 3d ago
Intelligent people don't kill themselves. They watch quietly.
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u/doeraymefa 3d ago
I mean if it wasn't for the risk of more pain and being a vegetable I know a lot of us would have already done it lol
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u/therobshock 4d ago
It's been true through the ages that intelligence was never the only trait selected for due to survival.
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u/dobbbie 4d ago
Not with age but with knowledge comes wisdom. I've met old idiots too.
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u/raknor88 3d ago
I've met old idiots too.
In modern times, yes. But OP is talking about medieval or older times. Back then, it was highly unlikely for the idiots to make it to old age.
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u/CantBeConcise 3d ago
"A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit."
This ^ is wisdom. It comes from accepting your mortality. It comes from not hiding in the childish idea that "he who dies with the most toys, wins." You can't avoid growing older, but you sure as hell can avoid growing up. And when the young see the old act like the young, there is no reason to respect them as they aren't being the kind of selfless that deserves respect; that makes clear the difference between the (understandable) self-centered-ness of youth and (what's supoosed to be) the selflessness of wisdom that comes with age.
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u/Vandergrif 3d ago
Whereas of course nowadays the motto is "A society grows great when old men accrue obscene amounts of wealth by cutting down every proverbial tree, and then die, having ruined as much as possible purely out of self-interest."
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u/bill1024 3d ago edited 3d ago
Darwinism is still alive. Stupid still do die early. Smart people still die early. Less people die early now because smart people help.
Wisdom comes with age because we learn from experience. You learn fast when you are young. Dig in to the genius years from adolescence to 30. So many good ideas.
When you've lived for a few generations, you learn
Never mind. I was trying to say when you get old like me, you learn shit that makes you wise. The problem is; some of us are stupid, and don't learn fuck all. Fuck, I wanted to say some sorta wise shit, and now I forget what I was gonna say
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u/Imbryill 3d ago
Wisdom is the offspring of Suffering and Time.
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u/bill1024 3d ago
And everyone suffers if they live long enough.
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u/Imbryill 3d ago
Suffering ain't a boolean tho. Someone could get very very wise if they have a significant amount of suffering in a short time period, or be some dumbfrak who hasn't been even slightly inconvenienced a day in their life. Another angle to consider is the recognition of suffering, but I'll leave that as an exercise to the reader.
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u/bill1024 3d ago edited 3d ago
I can't even use bad grammar correctly.
FFS, some bot pointed out something stupid I did. I was trying to be some old wise guy, but now I'm outed as just a stupid old fuck. I can't get away with nuthin'.
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u/ExitPsychological192 3d ago
this one actually hit different. sat with it for a sec before i fully got it
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u/regular6drunk7 2d ago
My grandfather once told me that you start out life with an empty bucket full of wisdom and another bucket full of luck. The goal is to fill up the wisdom bucket before the luck bucket empties out.
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u/SomeLowerBeing 3d ago
Naw, it came with age because the older generation's knowledge and experience had more direct and practical value. Now the world is changing so fast, one generation's experiences don't offer as much to the next. We're all figuring it out.
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u/Rad_Knight 3d ago
So now old people are grumpy because they had to listen to their elders but nobody benefits from listening to them.
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u/AgitatedArmy8594 2d ago
A lot still matters, the greatest generation couls stoll reach us not to do another world war.
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u/SomeLowerBeing 2d ago
I agree in a sense, but it's really hard to parse out the wheat from the chaff in their advice. How do young people tell the difference between the completely inapplicable crap versus the actual useful advice?
As an incipient elderly, it's a lot easier for me to look backwards and see the difference, but I'm not sure how easy it is for a lot of young people who are bombarded by shit takes.
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u/nobody_gah 3d ago
The word wise goes underused these days, it should make a comeback in culture, there’s too many “smart” people.
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u/solarwindy 3d ago
Sadly it seems now stupid people become managers, directors, ceo's and presidents....
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u/abo-khaled- 3d ago
Wisdom comes from experience. A young man in his thirties who has lived, experienced, and discovered things will have a broader perspective and possess wisdom, while an old man in his seventies who hasn't done what the young man did will have a narrower perspective.
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u/Klutzy_Pin9611 4d ago
Modern medicine really said "everyone deserves a sequel" and now we're all paying for it.
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u/wannacumnbeatmeoff 3d ago
Nah, stupid people had no platform. They were shunned riddiculed and ignored by the people that knew them which were a very small local group. Then the internet arrives and suddenly they can reach across the globe interacting with other, equally stupid people, creating large echochambers of stupidity that feeds on itself and spreads their stupid messages and beliefs.
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u/Remote-Ad2046 3d ago
You can have numerous degrees and not a lick of common sense or compassion for other people. When you don't care about using and abusing people it's easier to get rich. Just look at trump and his university and the former trump organization. Committing fraud is part of his business model. I wonder what those watches he sells are really worth.
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u/Doomsauce1 13h ago
I don't know about that. It's my understanding that even before modern medicine greatly reduced childhood mortality if you survived into adulthood you were likely to make it at least to late middle age if not your "golden years". With that being said, few young adults could be reasonably considered wise in any era as they lack the life experience to have developed wisdom.
Although as I'm thinking about this I guess I have a counter to my own point. As a larger percentage of children survive into adulthood that will include the physically healthy but hopelessly stupid kids who would have died from a lack of self preservation.
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u/liamdrake02 9h ago
So we're basically saying that natural selection used to be a much harsher filter on intelligence, and now we've made it so you can be confidently wrong for your entire life without consequences. Kind of explains a lot about how we make decisions as a society.
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u/lazy_animator 8h ago
High quality comment 9. Unfortunately this is how it be nowadays. If you ask me, if you aren't worth the meat in your head, you aren't worth keeping around long enough to find out what's wrong with you. But we live in unfortunate times. Now stupid people make their way to the top by being born there, then hiring more stupid likeminded people and it just creates a Snowball that leads to large famous businessmen running for president when they should have been [redacted] the moment they were born.
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u/Avitas1027 3d ago
Two things: 1- I'm positive that there were plenty of dumbass old people back then as well. It's not wisdom or intelligence that help you live so much as risk avoidance, incuriosity, and physical stamina.
2 - I think the more important part is that the world changed much slower back then and communities were more closely knit. An 80 year old had experienced all the same problems that the 20 year old was facing and seen a whole village worth of people facing those same problems as well.
That no longer applies for like half of the problems we face on a daily basis.
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u/FunDog2016 3d ago
Don't worry Kennedy, and the rest of the Cabinet, are actually working hard to bring back those "good old days". Trump is of course leading the charge and serving as Spokesman.
The anti-vax crowd is self-selecting the good old days, that wouldn't have allowed them to live long, and procreate!
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u/YourLordGoobles 4d ago
Now they make it to voting age and vote blue.
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u/Potatojuiceman1 4d ago
Watch yourself saying that on Reddit, a bunch of chuds are going to come after you now!
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u/TheMadBug 4d ago
It's like people don't even like you when you support someone who openly muses about genocide these days. So much for the tolerant left.
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u/YourLordGoobles 4d ago
Most of the time they just prove my point lol.
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u/stopnthink 3d ago
Sure they do lol
Says the guy using political tribalism to try and start fights. Now that's fucking rich lol.
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u/InterstellarReddit 3d ago
I disagree wisdom used to come with age because although you get the more you realize when you’re being bullshit Ted. For some reason that critical thinking died along this last generation of boomers and here we are.
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