Maturity

I live in an ageist society. This means, culturally speaking, one is privileged if one is viewed as "old" in some way. Something like seniority from hanging around a job for a long time, just dodging death for a number of decades or just plain acting as if one's older than one really is. Yes, that means "maturity", in a completely arbitrarily defined sense.

Now, I surmise that a goodly number of the locals seem quite intent on projecting that air of maturity. It can be seen from how they religiously show their intolerance of anyone who acts contrary to their idea of maturity (ignoring how that may in itself be conduct typical of somewhat immature high school children) and an emphasis on how those younger than they are...are "children". Or kids. Whatever.

I suppose I could regard this as a socially motivated attempt at soliciting the social benefits associated with age. To me, however, everything within reason is permitted and I am perfectly happy to accept any sort of goofy behavior on the condition that it does not disrupt the bottom line. That also means I have no qualms about tolerating staff goofing about at a sit down restaurant as long as my food comes to me on time and is prepared properly, and that I wouldn't hesitate to take an elderly person to task for being rude. They should really know better, and I have no tolerance for senile delinquents.