our elders?

i had a discussion this weekend with a group of people who are big on "connecting to past generations" so we can learn from them. but here's the problem i am having with this idea of seeing "elders as all knowing" - they screwed-up so much, what can they truly teach? how can we look to a "past generation" for "advise" when we think differently? what can a modern person teach us? (excluding what "not" to do). i am not sure all this talk about "letting the older generations teach us" is truly valid - maybe if we see it as "learning from their mistakes" i could see it, but then that is more negative then i desire to be - what i have found is that our "older generations" of christians say things like, "you think just like us, except you use different words" - but we don't, a postmodern person does not think as a modern; i do not think like my parents. i don't think like an evangelical - i use different words, because they have different meanings. i see things fundermentally different; i start at a different point and i move in a different direction - what can a modern generation teach?

i have found that when people say, "we can learn from past generations" what they mean is - if they are the past generation, "do as i say." i am having a rewal hard time processing this idea that we need to respect the generations before us - i think it was len sweet who said (and i am paraphasing) that postmodern people "venerate the bones of our ancestors." i'm not sure that is true. just some random thoughts on the subject.

pax