I hate to be the bearer of bad news, since there is enough of it, but being contrarian I must counter all the good news about old age that is now being published. "Fake News" must be combatted even when we would like to believe it. That positive propaganda about the elderly would be produced in great quantities was predicted by the prescient Russell Baker over 30 years ago in an article in the New York Times which began like this:
“We will soon be inundated with nonsense about how wonderful it is to be old. The baby-boom generation now becoming long in the tooth, thick in the middle and sparse on the top will demand it.”
He refers to the land we inhabit as "Old Crockdom". The article prompted this letter:
Russell Baker suggests that ''we will soon be inundated with nonsense'' as more and more of my fellow boomers get gray and ''long in the tooth'' and endure other calamities of aging too painful for me to repeat. Yet this graying, long-haired, reading-glassed boomer ''kid'' wonders if some benevolent astigmatism isn't keeping Mr. Baker from seeing the bit of dismal nonsense that is already in his hands: our age demanded -- and got -- large-print $20 bills. With laser surgery available to restore eyesight and erase expression lines, does Mr. Baker really expect ''this vast army of demanders'' to go kindly without as it slouches toward Old Crockdom?
The trend continues into this century and was commented upon in a review of Michael Kinsley's book, Old Age: A Beginner's Guide. The reviewer notes that “Kinsley is intent on being wryly realistic about coping with illness and the terminal prospects ahead.” [He suffers from Parkinson's]. He continues:
“Longevity breeds literature. As people (including writers) live longer thanks to medical advances, we can expect many more books contemplating the vicissitudes of aging, illness and dying. These topics, previously thought uncommercial, not to mention unsexy, have been eloquently explored recently by Diana Athill (“Somewhere Towards the End”), Roger Angell (“This Old Man”) and Christopher Hitchens (“Mortality”), among others. Now that the baby boom generation, defined as those born between 1946 and 1964, “enter life’s last chapter,” Michael Kinsley writes, “there is going to be a tsunami of books about health issues by every boomer journalist who has any, which ultimately will be all of them.” Hoping to scoop the others, he has written “Old Age,” a short, witty “beginner’s guide,” with an appropriate blend of sincerity and opportunism...."
He is equally sardonic on the prospect of losing one’s marbles. “Of the 79 million boomers, 28 million are expected to develop Alzheimer’s or some other form of dementia. . . . That adds up to about 35 percent, or one out of three.” Lest the vain ones think they can better their odds by living right, he adds: “They are jogging every day but will get Alzheimer’s anyway.”
Perhaps that is enough bad news for now.
Sources:
The review of the Kinsley book is from "Michael Kinsley’s ‘Old Age: A Beginner’s Guide’, Phillip Lopate NYT, April 18, 2016.
I did not write down the complete information for the Russell Baker article, but you will find it in the New York Times on Nov. 20, 1988.
Back when Mr. Baker turned 91, I wrote about it and within that piece you will find an eloquent description of his visit to see his mother in a nursing home. See Russell Baker's Birthday. He died last year. See: "Russell Baker (Aug.14, 1925 - Jan. 21, 2019).
About OATS1
OATS is my acronym for "Old Age Themes" and I intend for this to be a series about the realities of the aging process. If you really wish to believe that old age is fantastic you might want to avoid any posts containing OATS.
Bonus Information:
You happy codgers who read this far by mistake, need not read further. If you are going to live well into the three digits you will need all the money you have. If you have a more realistic view and are wondering what to do with all the money you have and the additional bit you just received from the Canadian government, and probably don't deserve, then follow Michael Kinsley's suggestion and give it back. The reviewer obviously does not think that is such a good idea:
“He [Kinsley] almost ruins it all with a conclusion recommending that the boomers redeem themselves with a final sacrifice — wiping out the nation’s debt. By having the money they leave behind sufficiently taxed when they die, he argues, they could leave a legacy that parallels the Greatest Generation’s achievement in World War II. “Boomers, those lazy, self-indulgent bums, those drugged-out draft dodgers, those mincing flower-power hippies who morphed into Wall Street greedheads with nothing left of their culture of peace and love except a paisley tie: We may not have the opportunity to save the world like our predecessors did, but we can save the American economy from the mess our predecessors are leaving.” Backtracking a bit from this cockamamie scheme, he nevertheless takes it seriously enough to devote the whole last chapter to it. The real mistake, economic realities aside, is to have abandoned the more charmingly intimate, skeptical persona he had so meticulously built up beforehand, trading it in for a pundit’s robes.”
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