But who listens to what is said of old? It was youth, that amnesia, like a wave sliding forward and then sliding back, that kept humanity tethered to eternal foolishness, as if a spell was cast on mankind and each generation was forced to disbelieve what the previous generation had learned a trancazos [by blows], as they say.
—Sandra Cisneros, Caramelo
I’ve often wondered why people don’t believe the advice of their elders until it is too late? Why does each generation think they will be the first to get away with what has been the downfall of everyone who tried it before? Certainly some advice is no good—conformity for the sake of conformity, for instance—but it seems as though we don’t even take the time to test advice against observation or principle before rejecting it. Perhaps we are offended by the notion that we don’t already know everything. Perhaps we like to think that we are all-powerful and can control our destiny. Perhaps this “amnesia” is necessary for progress to take place. Every life is an experiment in new ways of being, and like biological evolution, the experiments that survive continue, and the ones that don’t end up on the evening news. Despite the fact that we are literally made of our parents, we seem to think that they are the people least like ourselves and therefore the least qualified to advise us on how to live the lives they gave us. It’s crazy, but since we’re still here there must be some wisdom in it.
