"maybe we need to retire.

"Flustered and aggrieved I am as we all are"

Speak for yourself. This feels very similar (though less insulting) than various other (mostly nuked or heavily edited) posts here or on blogs.perl.org you've made in the past along the same lines. Since you solicit opinion, if you want to use perl or contribute in any way to whatever aspect of the 'community' you want to, go for it. If not, don't. Earn money from it, great. Have interests, hobbies and pass times that are unrelated to perl? That's healthy, I'd say this should be encouraged. Continue to do something you don't want to do because of habit, less healthy. Repeatedly ask others why you should have anything to do with something, in this case perl, less healthy still. Related.