We will all likely become victims of Ageism eventually, why don’t more people care?
You’re free to deny as much as you want, but in the end, we’re all seniors in training. We are all old people in preparation, despite our denial.
In Western society, becoming older generally means being “the other.” Experts and senior advocates can testify to this fact. According to Margaret Morganroth Gullette, an American age studies scholar, ageism is still socially acceptable discrimination, to the point of being lethal. “As we get older, we’re perceived as being less human,” she explains.
The COVID outbreak has taught us a valuable lesson about treating the seniors in our society. Gullette prefers to call the considerable number of deaths caused by the pandemic in long-term nursing homes “Eldercide.” The point is that we don’t respect old age. COVID worsened ageism by forcing people to die in nursing homes as others did not value their lives. True, many people believe it was due to carelessness, but we can’t rule out ageism. Fear of ageing arises from entering “The Fourth Age,” a stage that reflects the more feared and neglected aspects of old age, as defined by British sociologist Paul Higgs.
It refers to the very stage of life when a person is old, fragile, or mentally impaired and reliant on others. According to him, people in their fourth decade are generally pushed to the margins of society, where they become invisible. “People who are placed by the ‘fourth age’ go into a third-person narrative. “He wants. We’ll make a decision. That will appeal to him.” And this is one of the things corresponding to the idea of agency, which many people are scared of, Higgs explains. ‘Be nice to your children because they’ll pick your nursing home,’ is one of the freshest jokes. Although it’s nothing more than a joke, it does seem to refer toward the real change that happens in future.”
As Higgs believes, we generally prefer to judge people based on their ability to influence society. “And one of the things that happen with people who are frail, who are cognitively challenged, is that sometimes, they aren’t considered as a complete member of society in some ways,” Higgs says. “It’s not to suggest that the answer is easy, but in the pre-modern era, there was awareness in Europe about looking after older people because that was the right thing to do. It would have been seen as an act of grace rather than a government failure in that era. We’ll all prosper if we can get into the idea that the way we integrate all of the people in our society and how they incorporate us is ultimately beneficial. That, I believe, is a healthy path for us to take.”
People don’t care because it’s the inherent nature of human beings. They all think that these kinds of problems and discriminations never happen to them. Therefore, ageism isn’t a high priority concern. They mock seniors and make them feel unintelligent and less worthy; they fire or don’t hire the seniors due to their age. However, these people sometimes forget that ageing is nature’s law. Sooner or later, they’ll be old and victims of ageism.
Firstly, I think we don’t understand what it feels like to be a victim of ageism until we are.
Secondly, I think it’s because of the same reason we continue to smoke even though we know it’s unhealthy; we don’t believe it’s going to happen to us.
And the third reason I can think of is that ageism is a lot more complicated than other stereotypes like racism and sexism.
The complication is that everyone gets old if lucky enough. The problem is, it doesn’t just affect us after we reach a certain age. It is always in our heads. Some may feel “unqualified” because of their age in their adolescence and early twenties.
At the same time, we are scared of ageing; the first fine lines and grey hairs scare the hell out of us. Because deep down, we feel we are becoming “unfit.”
The best thing we can do is accept that we are constantly changing and believe it to be a blessing. After all, switching is a rule of nature; we were all nothing but a single cell at first.
People believe that the system is fair as long as it’s reasonably acceptable to them. Most people who participate in ageism do not fully realize that it will be their turn soon, or they think they know how to keep it from happening to them when it’s time. The sad truth is that everyone already is a victim of ageism, even if not everyone has faced or struggled with it on a personal level. And in the end, you can not really put a price tag on caring and respecting others; therefore, it seems less critical.
