Is Older Better

The accepted truth (or stereotype) that the older we are the less we like the present culture and the more we embrace the past is hitting me right in my big mouth.  I find myself more out of touch with current music, fashion, art, literature, TV, movies etc.  If you asked me to identify current culture people or things I am probably going to give you a blank stare and a shrugged shoulder. But ask me about the those things associated with the 50's , 60's and 70's I'll never shut up when answering.
Right now I am reading book about great events in sports since W.W.II and ending in the early 90's. 

And I just finished a book of reflections by the late broadcaster/write David Brinkley. I don't read what is currently the rage in books, nor do I listen to contemporary music or watch current TV programs. Lives lived in past excite me and the present seems a bore and vacuous in many ways. But why? Why is it that so many people tend to lose touch with the current and more dearly embrace the past as they age?

I write this now as I sit before my computer dressed in one of my typical 60's outfit. I'm surely not going to wear a pair of those pants that fall to the knees and reveal my butt crack. I have too much respect for society to traumatize it that way. Strange though, I think the young today look better in their current fashionable outfits than they would if they dressed in my old style. Conversely, it should go without saying that anyone over 40 looks ridiculous if dressing in the current style.

Maybe we get stuck in our past because it feels comfortable and we understand that one as we struggle to figure out the Lady Gaga, over the top communication devices or why that kid down the street wears his baseball cap backwards. We might like the Beatles because we have wonderful memories of our own lives when we first heard them or saw them perform live. We idealize the past in order to give us a reason to flee the discomfort of the present.

I can't contend that the past culture is superior to the present. Whatever is currently most popular must be the best for that society since the majority embrace it. But I can say what is more comfortable to me, and it isn't today's world.  Humans often choose not on what is "best" but what makes them feel "best". Problem is, the oldies can't seem to understand why the younger folks like their world, and the younger person also is clue less as to why the oldies are stuck in the past. When I was young that used to be called the "generation gap". It is a real phenomenon that makes complete understanding between the two cultures a very difficult ideal to achieve.

I think it might be a good thing that we age this way, that we have a refuge to hold on to that the youngest and most hip can't understand.  Otherwise....I would type this while wearing spandex and listening to hip hop or rap music. And that wouldn't be a pleasant site for the world to see.