absurdities of modern life.
It is encouraging for those who fear ageing that nearly half of Americans aged 65 and older, when questioned, described the present as ‘the best years of my life’. But at the same time many of the comments made by the elderly about themselves do not stray far from the stereotypes: ‘My body’s ugly obstinacy in keeping on living strikes me as admirable’; ‘What do I want? Money and a younger woman’; ‘In myself I observe the very traits that used to irritate me in men of late middle age whom I have known: a forgetfulness, a repetitiveness, a fussiness with parcels and strings, a doddery deliberation of movement with patches of inattention… I feel also an innocent self-absorption, a ruminativeness that makes me blind and deaf and indifferent to the contemporary trends and fads that are so crucial to the young’; ‘Every attempt to be specific about the afterlife, to conceive of it in even the most general detail, appalls us.’
Not atypical current attitudes to getting old come from a recent article by Tim Lott, who is in his 50s, in the London
There are disadvantages to growing old—you smell, your teeth crumble and the bad habits that you once thought you could rid of by sheer force of willpower you now realise are as inescapable as your rumpled skin. But the great consolation is that all your contemporaries are crumbling in much the same way. Even people who were once rock stars can now be joyfully observed on TV resembling balding retired pork-pie tasters.
In another piece, he says the advantage of being older is that at last you know who you are. If you are then ugly, so are all your contemporaries. You also probably have more money.
The charity WRVS, which supports volunteers working for the elderly, found that 40 per cent of the public don’t feel that they do enough to support older people, 65 per cent of people feel that older people make a positive contribution to society, and 76 per cent of people feel that older people are not treated with respect; they claim that the elderly are perceived as unhelpful and rude. ‘Silly old goats growing old disgracefully’ is how the elderly were labelled in a newspaper article describing their activities at a party. Another similar recent anti-age remark can be found in the list of the world’s most livable cities: Vienna comes top of the list, but a negative comment is that it is full of grumpy old fur-coated ladies.
‘You cannot teach an old dog new tricks’ is but one of many proverbs about the old. In spite of the numerous tales and proverbs celebrating the wisdom of old people and promoting their care, folklore is replete with reflections of a basic distrust of age. The fear of the old is further reflected in the fairy tales of many countries in which old women, even those who at first appear to be helpful and kindly, frequently turn out to be sinister witches. Various demonic personages, notably changelings and the devil himself, can be rendered powerless by tricking them into revealing their age. Parents cannot necessarily expect the same care in their old age that they earlier tendered to their children. As the proverb has it ‘One father can better nourish ten children than ten children can nourish one father.’
In an Irish folktale a man has a father who has grown too old to do anything but eat and smoke, so the man decides to send him away with nothing but a blanket. ‘Just give him half a blanket,’ says the man’s son from his cradle, ‘then I’ll have half to give you when you grow old and I send you away.’ Upon hearing this, the man quickly reconsiders and allows his old father to remain after all, saying: ‘Good deeds are wasted on old men and on rogues.’ Another man in the prime of life abuses his ageing father; he strikes him and drags him out of the house by his hair. When he too becomes old his son treats him the same way. One day the son drags him out the door and on to the street. ‘You go too far!’ cries the old man. ‘I never dragged my old father beyond the gate.’
Many attitudes towards the old are deeply ingrained, recurring from one generation to the next. How they effect the practical ways in which the old are treated and cared for will be discussed next.
11. Mistreating
‘Ageism is as odious as racism and sexism’
Herr Levin von Schulenburg, a high official in Altmark, was travelling in about 1580 when he saw an old man being led away by several people. ‘Where are you going with the old man?’ he asked, and received the answer, ‘To God!’ They were going to sacrifice him because he was no longer able to earn his own living. When the official grasped what was happening, he forced them to turn the old man over to him. He took him home with him and hired him as a gatekeeper, a position that he held for 20 additional years.
Geronticide—the killing of the old when they are no longer of any use—features in the folk tales of many lands but has also been a historical reality. Even today some cultures do not encourage the survival of the old, much less suffer their continued burden. It is exceptional that in some primitive tribes the old are revered and cherished. The toughness of life, and scarcity of food, can render hearts impervious to soft sentiments with respect to the old. Particularly nasty examples have included claims of the killing of the old in several indigenous societies such as the Inuits, who live in the Arctic, the last example being in 1939. It is not clear how reliable these reports are.
The term ‘ageism’ was introduced in 1969 to refer to a combination of prejudicial attitudes towards older people, the promoting of negative stereotypes of old age, and discriminatory practices against older people. But as we have seen, it has a very long history. One of the comments about prejudice against the old before the term was in common use was by Max Lerner in 1957: ‘It is natural for the culture to treat the old like the fag end of what was once good material.’ The psychologist Dominic Abrams has claimed ‘Ageism is the most pervasive form of prejudice experienced in the UK population and that seems to be true pretty much across gender, ethnicity and religion— people of all types experience it.’ Ageism was described in 1975 by Robert Butler ‘as a process of systematic stereotyping of, and discriminating against, people just because they are old’; and by R. C. Atchley, as ‘a dislike of ageing and older people based on the belief that ageing makes people unattractive, unintelligent, asexual, unemployable, and senile’. He claims that research indicates that most Americans subscribe to at least a mild form of ageism.
A major example of ageism and age discrimination in everyday life in the UK is the mandatory retirement age set at, or after, the age of 65, though the mandatory retirement age for civil servants has been abolished. Early retirement is not necessarily a good thing for an individual. Over 100,000 people were recently forced to retire against their will and this has made life very difficult for many of them. With an estimated 120,000 older workers forced to retire in 2009, this policy is draining billions of pounds from the economy every year. Forcing over 100,000 employees out of the job market has opened up an estimated
A survey in the
Work in later life can contribute to older people’s health and wellbeing and can make a dramatic difference financially: ten more years of working life can double the value of a typical private pension. Magistrates and jurors are not allowed to serve past the age of 70, and older workers are rated consistently lower than younger workers, despite no significant differences in work achievements. In fact older workers are actually more reliable in terms of absenteeism than younger workers. The Employment Equality Act (Age) Regulations 2006 has made it unlawful to discriminate in a work or training context against someone because of their age. A worker should not be disadvantaged in any area of employment such as recruitment, employment benefits and dismissal. But there are
