In his book Juvenescence: A Cultural History of Our Age, Robert Harrison stated that “the young have become a model of emulation for the older population rather than the other way round”. It seems that both Robert Abela and Bernard Grech have jumped onto the bandwagon.
Grech declared he wanted a young party. Sitting MPs were urged to step out of the political arena to make way. Party insiders said it was “shameful that the youngest MP was 37 years old” and that the average age of the PN parliamentary group was 55. In short, too old, too out of touch. Abela bragged that he will have the youngest cabinet ever.
That youth is beautiful, appealing and enthusiastic cannot be denied. The energy of youth can provide drive and flashes of genius. Young people can be incubators for radical thought. But that is not the prerogative of the young. And youth is not a guarantee of innovation.
The major political parties are in a rat race to outdo each other in idolising youth. The PN’s knee-jerk reaction to its dismal appeal among the young and accusations of stagnation was to adopt a strategy of juvenilisation, which risks loss of cultural memory.
While juvenescence is commendable, it requires a recognition of heritage and legacy and the incorporation of historical perspective to the present. To be truly new requires a renewal from what has preceded, rather than a constant chase after frivolous novelty.
What really matters is not age but competence, vision, wisdom, respect and perseverance – and, above all, honesty and integrity.
What is it that gives us hope in young, inexperienced leaders? Have we not learnt anything from the lessons of young Joseph Muscat and Konrad Mizzi? What did their youth bestow upon the nation?
After almost a decade of fascination with youth, the glimmer of youth’s shine should be dimming. Having been bitten by the avarice and amorality of the youthful Muscat we should be yearning for the experience, stability and wisdom of the mature Lawrence Gonzi.
Muscat discarded the old. He cast out the wiser members of his cabinet – George Vella, Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, Leo Brincat – because he did not want them to be his guilty conscience as he desecrated the country.
We have had enough of the intellectual arrogance and boorish behaviour of the young Ian Borg and Silvio Schembri. The alleged reprehensible actions of the young Yorgen Fenech should be enough to make us doubt youth.
What really matters is not age but competence, vision, wisdom, respect and perseverance – and, above all, honesty and integrity- Kevin Cassar
The senseless murder of Lassana Cisse allegedly by two of our young soldiers is enough to lose faith in youth. Of course, the older generation is no guarantee of integrity either but that is exactly the point. Age is no guarantee of honesty. Age is irrelevant. Even if we accept that the young are more likely to be honest and uncorrupted, that alone is not enough. For those burdened with the responsibility of office, knowledge, wisdom, intelligence and competence are essential. Experience is key and that is something that youth is far less likely to possess.
You would not feel reassured if the doctor operating on your seriously ill relative was a young graduate. Nobody would feel at ease on a plane with a trainee pilot at the helm. A 19-year-old with no experience should not be heading a multi-billion-euro company. So why would we entrust young leaders with the economy and health of a whole nation?
Attracting youth to politics is, of course, commendable. All good leaders understand the importance of intergenerational coalitions. The young are part of our society and should be represented in the public sphere.
But that should not be at the cost of excluding others, especially our elderly. Sending out a message that the older generations have nothing more to contribute and should step aside is nothing short of flagrant ageism.
In the midst of a pandemic, where even the deaths of our elderly are trivialised by blaming ‘underlying conditions’, such an approach risks alienating the grey vote. The resentment of the old, who feel excluded and discarded, is reinforced. Most importantly, their exclusion deprives the nation of the wealth of their knowledge and experience.
The paradox is that, as life expectancy increases and older people remain fitter and stronger, the prevailing culture has become one of youth obsession and elderly disposal. Where, in past ages, powdered grey wigs bestowed a desirable look of wisdom, modern culture embraces Botox, hair dye and gym-toned bodies.
Instead of valuing noble traits of truth and justice we now blindly pursue perfectly airbrushed Instagram shots. Appearance and image trounce substance and merit every time – especially in politics. The paralytic Franklin D. Roosevelt would stand no chance against the good-looking bodybuilder Abela.
In a society that boasts of being inclusive and which promotes equality for all genders, sexual orientations, religions and races, the only category that can safely be discarded and excluded are the elderly.
Idolising youth for youth’s sake is just another cynical political sound bite. Youth for youth’s sake is deeply misguided. Our society is multi-generational and a truly inclusive and representative political arena must fuse the enthusiastic impatience of youth with the synthetic wisdom of the old.
We must avoid tumbling into a dangerous and irresponsible juvenility. Chronological youth has no merit of itself – just as much as age has no fault. Selection must be based on merit alone. True youth is not defined by age but by an eternal openness to grow and learn.
Youth ends when we stop growing – and some young people stop growing early – when they believe they have nothing more to learn, don’t need to listen to experiences of those who came before them and that their world view is the only right one.
Our country is astonishingly youthful but in too many respects infantile.
Kevin Cassar is professor of surgery and former PN candidate.