It's just a funny birthday card, sent to me with a lot of love. On the front it says, “Getting older is great,” and inside it continues, “…no one ever said that. Anyway, happy birthday.” (“Getting old is awesome…said no one ever. Anyway, happy birthday!”) Considering the alternative, growing old is surely nicer than dying. Either way, I’ve never seen a card that says, “Dying is fabulous,” and it’s hard to imagine who one might send such a message to. Surely, the deceased person’s relatives would find it, to say the least, confusing.
Despite the laughter it provokes, the card expresses the ideology of “ageism” that dominates Western culture, particularly in the United States. The home of celebrity culture – a phenomenon that only exists thanks to photography, film, television and the Internet – the United States embodies the cult of staying forever young no matter what: through plastic surgery, extreme exercise and image alteration through Photoshop or any other technology that makes one look younger. People are expected to have the perfect body, no matter what the cost. The motto “Perfect mind, perfect body” (“Perfect mind, perfect body”) is a website for selling the “natural” supplements that have proliferated enormously in the United States and that are the advertisements that finance the right-wing networks. However, for me, that slogan reminds me of the Smothers Brothers, television comedians who were censored in the 60s for opposing the Vietnam War, “Perfect mind, perfect body…take your pick” (“Perfect mind, perfect body….take your pick”).
The essence of youth culture is that NEW is always better. Those of us who remember that we could count on products we already knew and trusted are constantly frustrated and disappointed when we find that what we knew is no longer useful, whether it is food, clothing or technology. The old cliché, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” (“If it ain't broke, don't fix it”), has been wrecked by the surge of the capitalist need to create markets. We may be totally bored, fed up, satiated and stuffed with food, drink, advertising and the violent and bitter fruits of the culture industry, but many of the most creative minds of our time are committed to keeping us perpetual consumers to prevent overproduction by creating a demand for unnecessary products.
The constant flow of new technologies is particularly disruptive for many people over 70. New gadgets and applications are continually being invented, by young people for young people. The effect on us is one of frustration caused by the need to endlessly adapt to new technologies. I believe the goal towards youth is to distract them from thinking seriously about the decaying world we live in while they download whatever some new millionaire created. Youth suffer from an “information overload” and distractions caused by focusing on unnecessary and meaningless trifles.
I've been told that those of us who are around 70 or 80 years old are “stuck in the past” (“stuck in the past”), but I am tempted to argue that those who did not live through the late 1960s and early 1970s probably have difficulty understanding the concrete experiences and personal choices that can change the way we see and act in the world. I suspect that someone who did not live through that period is “stuck in the perpetual present” that does not allow them to imagine alternatives to capitalism, imperialism, and neoliberalism. Their limitations of thought are reflected in modern music, in which the tonal range has been greatly narrowed, down to non-music like rap. Those of us who experienced and participated in the last great anti-imperialist movements saw possibilities that are unimaginable today, despite ecological disaster and the extraordinary collapse of liberal democracy and social policies like progressive taxation, decent wages, affordable childcare, and free education.
Those of us who lived through those times and participated in the movements that redefined our culture are getting older. We are seen as sharing some negative attributes, such as senility, rigid thinking and beliefs. Of course, our brains are no longer as fast as they were in youth. However, according to research published in the journal New England Journal of Medicine, gains in flexibility. The peak of human intellectual activity occurs around the age of 70, when the brain works at full strength because the interaction of the right and left hemispheres of the brain becomes harmonious, which expands our creative possibilities. Therefore, with age, we are more likely to make the right decisions and are less exposed to negative emotions. The brain of the elderly chooses the path that consumes the least energy, eliminates the unnecessary and leaves only the appropriate options for solving the problem. A study was conducted involving different age groups. Young people were confused by the multiple possibilities of the tests, while those over 60 gave the correct answers.
Feminist Anna Freixas, author of the book, Old me: survival tips for free beings (2021) says: “We are interesting old people, the thing is that you have to know how to listen and be close to know how to take advantage of this wealth. We are not illiterate, we have gone to university, we have been pioneers in all social movements with enormous experience, and we have achieved all the rights that others now boast of.”
The problem, of course, is that many young people are so wrapped up in their constant innovation nonsense that they don't have time to listen.
Old age is treated as if it were a disease or a problem. In fact, it should be understood as one of the three fundamental stages of life and may be the longest, the most complex and the most varied for some people. Ageism causes young people to see us as less human or to infantilize us, but barring an early death, old age is the destiny that everyone will experience, although few will live it enthusiastically. However, for some people, old age can offer new opportunities for work, entertainment, family, leisure time, education and contributions, instead of the familiar superficiality of images of baldness and graying hair, stooped posture and slow steps, wrinkles, canes and hearing aids and a life spent in front of the television.
For those lucky enough to discover what they love to do and the tenacity to pursue it, old age offers the satisfaction of having realized the dreams for which one has lived and to which one has given oneself. Tell me how you grow old and I will tell you how you have lived. Having reached the end of our season of life, we can free ourselves from the ambitions and hollow vanities of social recognition because we are who we have made ourselves, although that does not negate the possibilities of setting new and fascinating goals, given the freedom that many older people enjoy from not having to worry about raising children or having the stress of earning a living.
Ultimately, old age can be fabulous if we undertake the journey consciously, by maintaining our physical health through exercise, our mental health by using our brains, and our existential health by knowing exactly how we want to spend the time we have left.
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