Anyone Who Says Differently is Selling Something

I don't know when it became a moral crime to be unhappy about crouching towards death. Maybe it was the dawn of the internet, when for the first time it was possible to see in real time how much company misery actually has. Very few people like the way they look as they age. Even fewer people like the way their partner is beginning to look. Every thinking person is living more than part time in regret. Looking back we see that the majority of modern career paths lead to stagnation and disappointment as we made money for assholes. We failed to make a difference at that desk job for whatever company but we can't leave because agism in hiring. It's too late to start something new and re-invent without major financial backing. If we are single, dating is at best a minefield. Some of us are taking care of children and parents and sometimes those parents are children. We find that we no longer desire the life we built or that was built around us while we were busy running around trying to get it together and keep it together. Our 201k is flat. That book/film/album/art piece never got made and probably never will. And then moving on to more dire problems- rampant civil wars, misallocation and hoarding of resources, the destruction of our planet. Why oh why then, are the pop psychologists missing the real reason that people should be optimistic about aging? Why do they stay (as it is phrased) trying to convince people steeped in a culture that prizes youth that aging is a positive thing.  Do a search suggesting that you are unhappy about getting old and you will be assaulted with "buck up" think pieces extolling the virtues of aging. No one is buying it. 

I can't speak for an entire generation, but I think the examples of our parents and the prevailing gerontocracy have destroyed the idea that there is a positive correlation between age and wisdom. No one is asking us for advice, and I am not even sure how relevant it would be if anyone could convince us to give it. The development and normalization of anti-aging cosmetic procedures and products has made looking one's age optional- for some. There is now a right way and a wrong way to look old and the wrong way to look old is to look old. Medical science has informed us as to what we can look forward to in terms mental and physical deterioration, so no fantasies about that. And finally, for a large portion of us old age will mean even getting turned away from the poor house-it will be full and/or a formula will decide that you aren't poor enough to get in. Then there is irrelevancy to the larger culture- and let's be honest for those of lying at the intersection of so many minority experiences, invisibility is not new. But now as an elder fill-in-the-bank even the youth of your group aren't interested--what are you going to tell them?

No amount of positive thinking or change in ideation is going to do any about the facts, so on the bright side I would say the main benefit of getting older is knowing that you won't be around for the coming disasters. Global warming; you won't be around to see the worst of it. If you think it's hot and stormy now, just imagine. Robot apocalypse--you still don't even have smart appliances so unless you are a super early adopter, you might be safe in your retirement home with a brown foreign human nurse. War--you haven't be draftable in decades. Hell, your reflexes aren't even good enough to fly a drone. Your war will be internal. Fascists will probably overlook your frail ass. What threat are you?

The glass is half empty- there is just that much less flavorless liquid to swallow!