Imagine if you will you’re on a carousel. A carousel you can’t stop no matter how sick you are over the side. Some may call this amusement. The janitor calls it America.

Tonight’s lecture – The Curious Fear of Getting Old

Not unique to Americans but in many ways uniquely American. They say you can fairly judge a society by the way it treat its poor. The janitor may posit you can fairly judge a society by the way it treat its elders. If you live in a reductionist world where people are only the sum of their outputs, if you live in a world where elders are nothing but spent labor, a draw on society, pulling us down, takers not makers, may I suggest you are part a cult. White hoods swapped for suits and ties, but a cult all the same. A cult dedicated to the riding of this merry-go-round no matter how many people are sick over the sides. No matter how many people fall off to be ground in the gears. If you’re afraid of getting old, perhaps it’s time to ask yourself if the fear is truly lodged in the pit of your stomach or rather part of the birthright of a society that views your labor as a commodified good to be bought, sold, traded, and most of all depleted. A society that views people as depreciating assets the same as trucks. The same as tractors. The same as commercial buildings and livestock. A society that only pays lip service to the notion that all men (women and people) are created equal. Because once upon a time, not that long ago, society looked to the longest lived for the bulk of their wisdom. But wisdom is a wash in a world of widgets. Aged-bones a bust in the building of Bethlehem Steel.

He may ramble. He may take the scenic route. But resist your American instinct to tune out the man on account of his age because once upon a time living this long meant you had something to say.