More insidiously, these institutions support the narrative that the forces in power are there due to merit instead of birth or other accident and conversely, that those who fail had the same chances as anyone else; they just weren't good enough. The lucky few (see: "Herman Cain") who did manage to move up in the world are paraded around the same way lottery winners whose stories prove "anyone can do it."
Bottom line: The revolutionary forces of the 18th century have been thoroughly corrupted and no longer serve the purpose for which they were (theoretically) designed. The next fifty years or so are gonna suck.
]]>For me, it comes down to whether or not the decline in mental ability is due to physiological decline, informational overload, or stuck-in-a-ruttedness, or, rather, how these factors are weighted and how they interact. Once you work that out, then you have to work what happens when you remove the physical side of the equation.
My honest answer is "I just don't know enough to have an informed opinion." That answer is no fun.
I'm going to assuming that the majority of the decay is physiological and not simply an overload of information. That means, which I'm 90 but have the body of a 30 year old, I'm pretty formidable, at least compared to me-at-30. Sixty years of experience is some pretty powerful shit.
I'm aces at recognizing stuff I've seen before. There's a meta element to that, though: Yes, I've seen this idea and I know where it fails, but, I've also been around long enough to know that we have to keep trying this failed idea because that's also part of the cycle and trying to fight against that is pointless.
Now, if I have the physiology of a 30 year old, I also have that dude's hormones and that isn't a certain advantage. My inability to find a suitable mate or stay happy with one was, I suspect, partially a symptom of my body chemistry. I have to deal with that all over again.
There's one big advantage that the truly young have over the biologically young: The ability to see new things as truly new and react to them thusly. Mr. I've-Seen-It-All-Before has to be VERY careful not to make kneejerk judgements about things he thinks he's seen before but hasn't.
In fact, I think you'll see a new school of psychology based on trying to keep old brains young by getting them to see new things as new. We have enough trouble with this already. Raise your hands if you still think the best music was "when you were in high school." That sort of thinking kills in the long run. That's the thing aging folks have to watch out for. The moment you stop viewing new things as new, you're done.
]]>