The well-​​known colum­nist David Brooks recently wrote a provoca­tive op-​​ed piece in The New York Times, titled The Geezers’ Cru­sade.

Although the piece is more bal­anced than the title and quote below may give impres­sion of, Brooks is obvi­ously not afraid of step­ping on anyone’s toes.

One of the keys to healthy aging is what George Vail­lant of Har­vard calls “gen­er­a­tiv­ity” — pro­vid­ing for future gen­er­a­tions. Seniors who per­form ser­vice for the young have more pos­i­tive lives and bet­ter mar­riages than those who don’t.  (…) We are nat­u­rally inclined to serve those who come after and thrive when per­form­ing that role. The odd thing is that when you turn to polit­i­cal life, we are liv­ing in an age of reverse-​​generativity. Far from serv­ing the young, the old are now tak­ing from them.

Read the full arti­cle here.