Old age is not natural.

It just doesn't happen in the wild where the lifestyle is healthy and every animal is physically fit and active.

We, on the other hand, propped up by modern medicine, live way past our sell-by dates like shriveled brown leaves clinging to branches of trees in the harshness of winter.

It's not natural.

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BrewCityBarfly · M

Well, I think historically we have shifted from our view of "elders" as it were. Historically, when someone reached a certain age, they would be taken care of by younger people. They were still revered for their knowledge, experience, and wisdom.

Nowadays, I see a shift, where elders are dismissed and shuffled out in favor of the newest generation. It's as if the younger gen is coming along with a broom and knocking the leaves off the tree at the first sign of drying out.

sree251 · 41-45, M

@BrewCityBarfly Why is that?

BrewCityBarfly · M

@sree251 Ageism

sree251 · 41-45, M

@BrewCityBarfly Ageism is discrimination against older people. I see young women having babies with guys old enough to be their grandfathers. How come our country is run by politicians old enough to be great grand parents. Who voted them in if not the younger people?

BrewCityBarfly · M

@sree251 Politics is all about campaigning and money. People will vote for a toaster if it had the right slogans on it, and the right party designation.

I've seen more than my fair share of capable and experienced people pushed out of roles, demoted, and just plain shown the door in favor of younger people. This very post is a reflection of the general attitude towards growing older, that they've lived beyond an expiration date.

sree251 · 41-45, M

@BrewCityBarfly If what you say is true about politics, and I do see it the same way, then we have no business operating 1000 military bases all over the world to enable our politicians to pour our taxes down the drain funding insurgencies and wars in other nations.

You are confusing my post ("Old age is not natural") with disregard for older people. I am making an objective observation about the timeliness for "giving up the ghost". Babies come in at the rate of 4 to 5 a second like mountain spring feeding water into a lake. Why is the water not flowing out at the same rate? Is the drain choked or what?

Uncfred · 61-69, M

@sree251 I guess the middle aged people like yourself (eventually to be old) are the ones who voted them in.

BrewCityBarfly · M

@sree251 Sorry, but "old age is not natural" screams ageism to me, as well as blaming older people for clogging the pipes (in your view). The older you get, the older you will likely get. Just because someone stays relatively healthy by available means and lives longer doesn't make them the issue.

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sree251 · 41-45, M

@Uncfred I have not voted in any election in my life. When I was younger, it was just disinterest. After university, when I started working and paying taxes, I felt a sense of responsibility. I needed to know what I was contributing to. Why was the national debt so high? What was going on in Congress? Can't they manage the budget of the richest country in the world? The debt clock, and the nerve-wrecking time the nation had to go thru year after year to deal with that same damn crisis. The more I looked into how the government worked, the more aware and disgusted I became. The system doesn't work. Not the way it was supposed to. Government by the people can't work. No way. This is why we have crooked elected officials aided by corrupt bureaucrats stealing public funds, not just in Washington DC but all the way down to the State Capitols and local Village Halls. Even the judiciary, that third branch of government providing the check and balance smells as bad as the other two.

You are older than me. How could you lived through this chicanery? We don't have a country. It's all smoke and mirrors.