TABOO AND GENETICS 79 



for these people to " balance " their lives — to 

 find in abstraction a rounded perfection for 

 which earlier in life we seek in vain as strugglers 

 in a world of change. Thus old people are 

 often highly conservative, i.e., impatient of 

 change in their social environment, involving 

 re-orientation ; they wish the rules of the game 

 let alone, so they can pursue the new realities 

 they have created for themselves. 



Socially, the old are of course a very important 

 factor since a changed metabolism sets them 

 somewhat outside the passionate interests which 

 drive people forward, often in wrong directions, 

 in the prime of life. Hence in a sense the old 

 can judge calmly, as outsiders. Like youth 

 before it has yet come in contact with com- 

 plicated reality, they often see men and women 

 as " each chasing his separate phantom." 



While such conservatism, in so far as it is 

 judicial, is of value to society, looking at it 

 from the viewpoint of biology we see also some 

 bad features. Senex, the old man, often says to 

 younger people, " These things you pursue are 

 valueless — I too have sought them, later aban- 

 doned the search and now see my folly ; " not 

 realizing that if his blood were to resume its 

 former chemical character he would return to 

 the quest. 



Elderly people, then, biological neuters, come 

 especially within the problem of the economical 



