Age and Respect

I have a problem with the idea that the older you get the more respect you should be paid.  The only assertion I can make about someone who is older than me, is that they are closer to death, and even at that this assertion can not be made categorically because there will be many factors that will determine who will die first - I could end up dying before them.

I don't believe that anyone younger than I should pay me any respect due to my age alone.  I want people to respect me for who I am, not what I am.  The idea that with age you should automatically be granted respect is in itself disrespectful.  It promotes the idea that all you have to do is survive in order to be considered reverent. 

You can live to a very old age and be a cruel, callous person.  You could live a life filled with bile spouting nothing but hatred.  Age in and of itself draws absolutely no conclusions on the nature of your character.  It cannot be used to imply any great achievement other than survival which in and of itself is not something that is deserving of reverence.  A life of survival can be plentiful or repetitive.  It can be one filled with achievement or it can be one defined only by a cycle of eat, drink, sleep, repeat. 

If your life was to be expressed as a progress bar, with your age only representing the percentage complete, to have a higher percentage is no achievement other than one of having endured long enough to reach that point.  If respect is something that has to be earned then you should be reasonably expected to do something worthy of that respect. 

While many people say that younger generations have no respect for their elders, as I have grown and aged I find myself in a middle ground.  Although I am not middle aged, I am old enough not to be considered young by those who identify as such, and likewise I am young enough still not to be considered old by those who likewise identify as such.  In this middle ground I can see both sides and ultimately declare that as much disrespect for young people is displayed by older generations as they so often criticise.  I think the revelation here is that respect has nothing to do with age.  Both who cry on both sides of the lack of respect from either side are as naive as each other to believe that they should be given respect without earning it first.

As age does not imply wisdom, and neither does knowledge, so too then age should not imply respect nor reverence.