age

Dear súbditos,

Among the criteria do define authority the first and the most important one is age.

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Between two men, one 50 years old the other 25, supposed to be equal in all respects (v.g., education, intellectual abilities, family background, etc.), except age, the older man is presumed to be right. To conclude otherwise is to assume that over the time span corresponding to their age difference, the older man did not learn anything in life, or that the younger man did learn twice as fast (which runs counter the ceteris paribus assumption).