There are apparently sociologists who peddle theories of how people grow more conservative with age. According to them, we have bulging stock portfolios, get lavish pensions, buy sit down lawnmowers, & grow stupid with every new medication gerontologists pump into us. Screw that rubbish!
Not only are todays retirees of the 1960s-1970s generation who challenged & transformed social consciousness, but our pensions (for those who have them) are being systematically gnawed on & whittled down to chump change. Many retirees have to look for work at minimum wage--in a labor market where seniors are undesirable. Many are on food stamps. Many have to rely on relatives. Many are eating dog food. Many can’t afford medical care even with Medicare which is being administratively reduced to bare bones.
And here’s how we know the sociologists are talking through their hats. Around the world seniors have been a central part of protests--not just against pension cutbacks but against tyrannies of every kind. In the US they remain the backbone of the antiwar movement. Fighting for social justice transforms people & that is not something you age out of into political senility. Stupidity has never been an age-specific thing.
Here a senior woman leads striking city workers in Athens to protest public sector job cuts where 12,500 civil servants threatened with layoffs are being suspended on partial pay. Kick ass sister! Our fullest solidarity.
(Photo by Petros Giannakouris/AP)
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