Department Of The Most Stupid Prejudice Of All
What is the one thing every person on this planet – regardless of gender, ethnicity, political persuasion, intelligence, religion/worldview – is going to become?
Older.
And most of us, according to antiaging activist Ashton Applewhite, are “scarred stiff” at the prospect, despite the fact that so many of the fears we have about aging are wrong:
“How does that word (older) make you feel? I used to feel the same way. What was I most worried about: Ending up drooling in some institutional hallway. And then I learned that only *four percent* of older Americans are living in nursing homes, and the percentage is dropping.
What else was I worried about? Dementia. Turns out that most of us can think just fine until the end. Dementia rates are dropping, too. The real epidemic is anxiety over memory loss.
I also figured that old people were depressed, because…they were old, and they were going to die soon.
It turns out that the longer people live, they less they fear dying, and that people are happiest at the beginnings and the ends of their lives. It’s called the U Curve of Happiness, and it’s been borne out by studies around the world.”
Wouldn’t it be smart(er) to have aging – this fact-of-life inevitability – unite rather than divide us?
Have you had well-meaning staff, from grocery clerks to salespeople to movie ticket-takers to hospital workers, speak “old” to you (as in, talk down to/patronize you), using pet words or phrases to refer to you (“honey, sweetie, darling,” etc.) which you have not given them permission to use? Chances are, if you’re over age 55 you’ll begin to notice that people are starting to treat you like you’re getting old.
Even worse is when you don’t notice the change in treatment, or accept it as inevitable, or become numb to your same-age peers adopting the negative social constructs and constraints of aging: they will say that they are getting old, and attribute any ache/complaint/physical or mental mishap to aging. You’ll see them giving up on making healthier choices in their lifestyles and activities ( “It’s too late/I’m too old/you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” ); they’ve resigned themselves to the supposed inevitabilities of physical and mental decline, and thus, such declines become self-fulfilling prophecies.
Those self-fulfilling prophecies “harm our health and constrain our futures,” but we can take a critical step to fight this – first, by becoming aware of the ageism all around us. For example, how do you refer to yourself, and others of a certain age?
Even self-deprecating jokes betray ageist prejudices:
“Sorry I’m late; I had a Senior Moment – forgot where I left my shoes.”
How many forgetful/scatter-brained incidents did you have when you were a child or young(er) adult? Innumerable, is my guess, but when my high school friends (or my now young adult offspring) forgot where they left their keys, they did not chastise themselves for having a “Junior Moment.”
How can we all stop doing this, when it seems to be almost a knee-jerk reaction, when the simple fact of aging is treated as a disease, instead of as what it is – life?
Antiaging activist Ashton Applewhite, author of This Chair Rocks: An Anti-Aging manifesto, [1] has at least a partial solution.
“It’s not the passage of time that makes it so hard to get older. It’s ageism, a prejudice that pits us against our future selves – and each other. Ashton Applewhite urges us to dismantle the dread and mobilize against the last socially acceptable prejudice. ‘Aging is not a problem to be fixed or a disease to be cured,’ she says. ‘It is a natural, powerful, lifelong process that unites us all.’ “
Listen to Applewhite’s TED Talk, Let’s End Ageism.
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Department Of On A Related Point…
Moiself loves the stuttering defiance of The Who’s song, My Generation.
I can’t help but wonder if Pete Townshend, who wrote the brash youth anthem when he was 20 years old and who is now still rock ‘n rolling at age 80, would care to rephrase the song’s infamous, lyrical/primal scream declaration, “I hope I die before I get old.”
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Department Of What’s The Point Of Asking, Then?
Dateline: Monday; circa 10 am; listening to one of my favorite podcasts. Ologies has been described as a “comedic science podcast;” host Alie Ward interviews experts in various scientific fields, exploring a different field of study (“ology”) in each episode. Ward and her guests take an amusing *and* enlightening approach to their subject du jour, with the aim to make obscure science interesting and comprehensible to professionals and laypersons alike.
The episode I had on was Literary Olfactology (the Politics of Smell), with guest Dr. Ally Louks. Here’s the episode’s description from the podcast website. If you’re an obscure-science-stuff aficionada like moiself, this should grab your attention:
“Smell and culture. Scent descriptions in novels. Fragrances and class. Stink and stigmas. We cover it all. Scholar, author, and Literary Olfactologist Dr. Ally Louks burst into the zeitgeist in 2024 with her PhD thesis ‘Olfactory Ethics: The Politics Of Smell In Modern And Contemporary Pros,’ and we finally got to sit down and talk about the intersection of art and smell and culture. Breathe in the foul, the fragrant, the peppermint, the tobacco, why motel rooms smell the way they do, the forgotten organ that could control your love life, spices at the root of xenophobia, perfume ads that cruised a movement, obscenity trials, explosions, following your first love and getting the last laugh.”
Daughter Belle’s olfactory politics: her solution to her objection to the aroma of her mother’s roasting curry spices.
Once again, I digress.
The what’s-the-point-of-asking issue: Ologies Host Alie Ward – moiself loves most of her hosting style, despite (what I see to as) the irritating and unnecessary-but-seemingly-obligatory ritual adopted by certain folk on the Far Left® [2] – begins the podcast as is her custom, introducing the guest(s) by having them introduce themselves and state their preferred pronouns. Which, Dr. Louyks did thusly:
“Ally Louks, and I use she/her pronouns.”
Later on in the podcast, after pausing for a commercial break, Ward reintroduces her guest, describing Louks’ interests and accomplishments using the pronoun, “they.” Several times.
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Department Of Movie Quote Of The Year [3]
“She had a butt that had a way of saying,
‘Look at me, I’m a talking butt.’ ”
( Liam Neeson, playing Lt. Frank Drebin Jr., The Naked Gun )
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Department Of: Yeah; This.
From Daily Calm meditation app, 8-6-25, Shedding:
“A student once asked his teacher, ‘What have you gained from meditation?’
The teacher replied, ‘Nothing. However, let me tell you what I lost. Anger; anxiety; depression; fear of old age, and death.’
We sometimes focus on what we can get from a practice; we look for progress through measurable signs – the number of breaths we can stay present with, or how long we can sit without fidgeting. But as our practice deepens, we discover that the gifts we perceive are not only measured in what we gather, but also what we discard.”
“Meditation is not evasion; it is a serene encounter with reality.” attributed to Thich Nhat Hanh
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Freethinkers’ Thought Of The Week [4]
Pema Chödrön is an American-born Tibetan Buddhist author, meditation teacher, and ordained monk.
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May you remember that you’re the sky and not the weather;
May you appreciate what you’ve discarded as well as gathered in life;
May you be grateful for the privilege of being alive (i.e., aging);
…and may the hijinks ensue.
Thanks for stopping by. Au Vendredi!
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[1] I’m ordering a copy.
[2] For lack of a better descriptor.
[3] Not to worry, there’s a lot of the year left.
[4] “free-think-er n. A person who forms opinions about religion on the basis of reason, independently of tradition, authority, or established belief. Freethinkers include atheists, agnostics and rationalists. No one can be a freethinker who demands conformity to a bible, creed, or messiah. To the freethinker, revelation and faith are invalid, and orthodoxy is no guarantee of truth.” Definition courtesy of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, ffrf.org
