Respect the elders - What does it really mean?

[PatchyBoy]

We have all heard " வயசுக்கு மரியாதை" some time in our life. So, what exactly does this mean? Traditionally, with age comes experience and with experience comes wisdom. So, it is understood that one is respecting the wisdom and not the age. Afterall, one being old is hardly any achievement.

Many times you might have given up your seat in the bus for an elderly person. I would like to believe that it is an acknowledgement of the infirmity that age brings and nothing more.

With the advent of the internet, the phenomenal advancement of science & technology, the general advances in availability of knowledge, I believe that the younger generation is far wiser than the older generation, in spite of being, well, younger.

Who would you respect - an old man, lets say in his seventies or eighties, who likes to argue that whatever he says is absolutely correct, because of his age - as against another, maybe half his age, presenting his side with well documented theories?

So where does the வயசுக்கு மரியாதை concept go now? Or am I misunderstanding the whole concept?

Rajan