People normally like youth and do not want to be old. In the West the old are virtually discarded by the young probably because the elderly are unable to display the kind of physical strength that is an essential constituent of smartness. The West has chosen smartness (the ability to act fast, look good and have sufficient strength and capability – often material – to tide over the moment) as its most essential requisite. There has been a general resistance to looking inwards and finding virtue in the non-material. The West has had little value for what is called “the inner voice” and generally prided itself in being “inner deaf”. The young are therefore much more valuable to their society than the old. The young are very useful in the advancement of material progress. India and some other Eastern cultures have, at least in the past, considered inner strengths to be greater than the outer. The Guru has been the pillar of wisdom and strength in the East as  youth, though physically strong, is generally spiritually deficient in comparative terms. Elderly people were therefore more powerful in some Eastern societies than youngsters and wisdom, rather than outward smartness, was the thing sought after. With hybridization, however, Western ways have crept into Eastern cultures and weakened the older generations and society is buzzing with the smartness of the Western kind even in the East. Youth is beautiful; who can doubt it? The desire to look more and more beautiful has grown here as there. The cosmetic and fashion industry is now making inroads into our lives as it never did. We are improving in the Western sense but getting impoverished in some ways. Values associated with the young are guiding the old and the old are sometimes behaving even more stupidly than the young did in the past. I think it is time people read The Tailor’s Needle.