Larry Summers and Older Drivers
The president of Harvard appears to have become a touchstone for every social debate about prejudice of any sort.
Writing originally in the Washington Post, Abigail Trafford cites Summers in a column defending—yes—older drivers.
I'll quote a little bit, because it contains one of the most glaring examples of fallacious argument I've seen in quite some time.
"'Oh, my God, they're sooooo slow." These words, quoted in a newspaper article, come from a 20-year-old woman in Florida. The subject of her condescending mirth: older drivers. Florida is full of them - white hairs in big cars, poking along... chuckle, chuckle.
"But what if the "they" in such a quote were black postal workers? Sooooo slow!"
"Or girls in algebra class? Sooooo slow!"
Instead of chuckles there would be outrage and charges of racism and sexism."
Okay, let's just dissect this. In the first instance, a 20-year-old attributes a quality to a demographic group—bad driving and old people. The ability, driving, is directly linked to the physical condition of the aged, at least in this young person's mind.
But in the latter two examples, the argument is applied to another group—African-Americans—based on their skin color, and to girls based on their gender. Totally different.
"Lawrence Summers, the president of Harvard University, nearly lost his job after he crossed the "ism" line with his remarks about the scientific ability of women," Trafford writes. So how come we don't get so upset about age-ism?
Well, lots of reasons. First, while there is certainly age-ism (what a terrible word) in American society, the elderly are also an enormously powerful political group, and are hardly discriminated against.
Second, because many older people (like many younger people)
are terrible drivers, albeit for different reasons. It's not their fault that their coordination has deteriorated. But I've seen lots and lots of older drivers who clearly shouldn't be on the road, and just can't afford (or don't want) to give up their mobility.
I write this as someone whose father recently lost the ability to drive, and I know how difficult that is....
