Meet the Grups

Imagine if you will …

Human beings are not the only humanoid race living on the planet. Among us, and in greater numbers, lives another humanoid species called the Grups. The Grups are virtually identical to us, except that they are larger, stronger, and incredibly long lived. While an average human lifespan may be about 80 years, a Grup lives well over 300 years. The oldest Grup alive today was born in 1687. He was 89 years old when the Declaration of Independence was signed.

Due to these differences, the Grups have accumulated all the wealth and power. They are not hostile toward human beings. In fact, they feel protective of us. They don’t really respect our input, however, as our vision is so short sighted compared to theirs. They actually regard us as only temporarily here, and they definitely feel that they know our needs better than we ever will. As a result, they make our decisions for us and, when they do allow us some level of participation, it’s usually pretty patronizing.

In case you haven’t guessed yet, this is an analogy for the relationship between young people and adults; adults being the Grups (Star Trek fans may note that I stole that from an old original series episode). A young person lives about 20 years, approximately 1/4th our total lifespan. Soon after that, they are no longer a young person -- they are an adult. They are different physically, developmentally, and have greater access to wealth and power. They begin to develop a longer term perspective, and have a much greater foundation of experience upon which to base their decisions. The fact that young people are, in a sense, ‘temporary’ beings is a contributor to the conditions I described in yesterday’s blog -- where adult systems make laws and regulations that affect young people without feeling any obligation to consult young people. It’s entirely understandable how this happens. Ask any Grup, they’ll be happy to explain it to you. But, is it right, and is it really in a young person’s best interest? Ask any human living under the benevolence of the Grups, and I suspect they’ll say ‘no’.