Blog post: Tridimity: Ageism

The plight of our older generations is gradually assuming increasing importance in the national consciousness as our population ages and our citizens collectively come to realise the shortcomings of care and provisions currently in place. The principal aims of care for the elderly arguably consist of the practical – that is, financial resources and a physical and human environment conducive to wellbeing – and also the nature of care, which needs to strike the correct degree of care. The latter will differ on an individual basis according to the needs of care-users, and either the provision of substandard care – failing to provide sufficient assistance when it is required – and conversely the patronisation and infantilisation of care-users by treating the elderly individual as if they are more dependent than they in fact are, and ignoring that person’s autonomy, agency and decision-making capabilities, can both be regarded as abuses. Recognition of the need to strike the correct balance on levels of care on an individual basis is well-established, and indeed a recent article for the BBC highlights the situation:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-27342341

Worryingly, though, the author writes:

If it is unacceptable to be verbally aggressive with the elderly, as it is, then it ought also to be unacceptable to be verbally aggressive to children. You cannot have it both ways. Both are human and both are going to be hurt and frightened as a result. Are you suggesting that the feelings of children are less important than those of the elderly? That's the way it sounds from this excerpt of the article - and it's just another form of ageism. The powerful displacing their anger and frustration onto the most disenfranchised section of society.

Indeed, it is often the case that those in their 40s, 50s or 60s will refer to any kind of behaviour that they do not approve of, or that does not serve their own interests, as ‘childish’. They essentially pick one biological feature of their – typically adolescent, or young adult – target and exploit that as if it were some kind of a weakness, because their underlying argument is non-existent. We would not accept the same behaviour if it featured around a different biological factor – say, race or sex or sexual orientation. Imagine the uproar if one said, ‘that’s a bit black’ or ‘that’s a bit womanish’ or ‘that’s a bit gay.’ But choose to say, ‘that’s a bit childish’, of somebody whom is chronologically younger than yourself, and most people won’t react. Perhaps it is because the word ‘childish’ is used to imply a state of immaturity – of failing to take responsibility for one’s actions and/or feelings. This is a possibility, but most of the times that I have witnessed the event, the supposedly ‘childish’ person is doing their level best to behave in an assertive way, while the labeller holds arbitrary power (financial or corporate) and therefore thinks it acceptable to abuse whomever they wish to abuse. Well, chronological age is no guarantee of maturity, and there are a lot of chronologically older people out there who still fail to take responsibility for their own actions, thoughts and feelings – and alternately demand solutions from their younger associates and/or continue to label their associates as ‘childish’. It is not even very fair to associate the word ‘childish’ with such derogatory comments as failing to take personal responsibility. Actually, a lot of children already do take responsibility for their self, but being in a state of pertpetual disenfranchisement (at least in the cases of poor parenting, which seems to be the prevailing culture), wouldn’t anybody become frustrated at never being listened to by those holding power (adults) and so shouting out as a last ditch attempt to be heard? The term ‘childish’ or ‘immature’ is used in this way by those holding power in society to validate their own active ignorance of the assertive voices of those holding less arbitrary power in society.

Being frustrated at not being listened to does not make you childish; it makes the other person a jerk.

Certain of the older generations in the West need to take responsibility for their own lives, for finding meaning in their lives that is independent of their children, whom they attempt to infantilise as a means of not waking up to the fact that their whole life has been a subjugation to the unthinking evolutionary programme. After all, in a few decades, we the younger generations will be the ones supporting your older generation.
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