Cocktails and Records

Stuff New Year. It is my birthday this week and I’m celebrating 33 years of not being run over, having my house burnt down or contracting a random disease. Always an acheivement in my book.

Obviously age has been on my mind lately, as it always is this time of year. The concept has been made even more salient for me by the strange combination of the American elections and a book I’m reading, The Social History of London by Roy Porter.

Listening to the analysis of the caucuses taking place in Iowa this week, I’ve heard more than a few people say that Barack Obama is too young and inexperienced. He is 46.

In The Social History of London, Roy Porter points out that William Pitt the Younger (British Prime Minister, 1783 – 1801, 1804 – 1806) was actually a reasonably good Prime Minister. He was 24 when he was first elected.

The book doesn’t mention whether the nation was aghast at Pitt’s youthful inexperience. I know Pitt the Younger is an extreme example, but maybe people were used to shorter life spans and young monarchs “running” the country back then (even though good old Queen Elizabeth II was 26 at her coronation I think).

In any case, I wonder how much our perceptions of age have changed over time?

And what exactly does old age have to offer other than conservatism and wisdom (allegedly) anyway?

Most great works of genius were done by younger people – Newton had discovered the laws of gravity by 25, Martin Luther had nailed his 95 Theses to the church door and kickstarted the reformation in his early 30s, Einstein had come up with the basics behind the theory of relativity by 26, Mozart had composed most of his repertoire by 30 and Marx had written The Communist Manifesto by around the same age. And by the time he was 26/27 George Harrison was an ex-Beatle.

This tradition of youthful over-achievement is made even more strange by the way our society continuously demonises young people – they’re all ASBO collecting, saddo 80s clothes wearing, knife wielding, binge-drinking, shallow consumerist, obese, lazy, Facebook addicted, media ’sleb/porn star wannabees. 30-somethings like me live protracted youths, desparately pretending that we are still young and cool and down with the kids. Younger people, particularly in their teens and 20s are definitely not perceived to be writing the political manifestos of tomorrow or turning science on its head.

I have no answers and I’m quite happy to be getting older, but the question of age does interest me – particularly how we so often seem to see youth as bad and as a problem to be solved, middle age as good, and older people, again, as an unwanted problem we wish would go away.

On a positive slant, I’ve bought myself seasons 1 & 2 of The Mighty Boosh as a birthday present. I think Noel Fielding was 31 or so when he wrote it so it should be ok, but Julian Barratt was an ancient 35…

I have been resisting the temptation to write about last week’s Australian election results. As a national traitor who abandoned the country at the beginning of the ‘Howard years’ and who barely keeps up with the politics of the nation, I am hardly qualified to go into it.

However, what has been interesting is the British press reaction to the news of the Kevin Rudd and (not very labour) Labor victory over John Howard’s (not very liberal) Liberal party. Has Howard’s legacy been deconstructed and analysed? Is there discussion about whether Rudd will save the country from becoming America’s 51st state? Very little, because the most important question for the British media is, of course, will Australia become a republic?

I really don’t know why anyone here cares. Australia will inevitably become a republic at some point and this is hardly going to have a tremendous impact on Britain when it does. It’s just a matter of pride and identity really and the UK, or more to the point England, is going to have to face up to its crumbling empire at some point.

I say that Australia will inevitably become a republic, but it does feel a long way away. According to some newspoll results I read recently in the Sydney Morning Herald only 45% of Australians support a republic, although the number did rise to 51% if Charles was to be King…

Either way, these are very low numbers and with the complete apathy shown towards the issue by Labor, it’s probably more likely that Scotland will become a bloody republic before Australia does…

I have spent this Saturday at the Battle of Ideas at the RCA. I am pleased to say that I managed to steer myself away from my usual favourite topics of religion and politics and attended some sessions on issues of privacy, technology and our old chum web 2.0.

Today’s great revelation was that apparently “young people” have a different approach to public vs private i.e. there is no private, especially when it comes to social networking sites. People allegedly post personal information and incriminating evidence all the time, stuff which might well come back to haunt them, and are unaware of the potential repercussions.

Although I realised during the course of the session that I don’t actually know anyone under the age of 30 (who is not under 5 anyway) that I could verify this with, I am still suspicious of this claim. Apart from implying that 15 year olds are all a bunch of naive idiots, it suggests that teenagers are not cynical and suspicious of the world at large.

Surely these traits can’t be unique to older generations, or even just me? I mean what’s the world coming to when young people don’t even expect other people to screw them over?!!? That’s your job when you’re a teenager – assuming that everyone’s out to get you.