I read Aaron’s blog today, particularly this post.
It’s a very popular sentiment. It is, in fact, the pervasive sentiment. Thinking anything else is more or less considered inhuman and barbaric.
So I’m a bit of a caveman.
I hate seeing the decrepitude of the aged. And I’m sure they don’t really enjoy falling apart. There are those that cling tenaciously to every moment of life and I certainly appreciate that. I love life with great enthusiasm. I think it’s the greatest thing ever. I hope I live to be a thousand.
But not if it’s as one of those shrunken feeble antiques. I just can’t be enthusiastic about living long but not so well.
Maybe it’s another affliction of the young but I still subscribe to the wolfpack model. Briefly it says that once you’re no longer a contributing member of the pack you should step aside. Get out of the way. Let the pack get on with getting on.
I’m not saying you should be tossed aside two days after retirement. Far from it. My parents just retired and I think they’re still vital and alive and very much giving something back to society. They still have the joie de vivre.
(I can just hear the indignant rage rolling across the face of the world over this post, but keep reading)
I think the untold billions poured into research prolonging life is missing the point. I mean, anyone who can look at the medical industry with a Machiavellian eye knows perfectly well that there’s no money in a cure. They aren’t in it to make you into a tower of fortitude. They just wanna keep you going. Alive, but not too healthy. Live long, and slowly fall apart. That’s where the money is.
But it’s a capitalist world and that how it works. That’s how we wanted it.
If I had my way I wouldn’t even spend the money on cures. No way. I’d spend the money on prevention. Yep. Stop people from getting sick. Make them stronger. Bolster the immune system. Push fitness and emotional well-being. Live long and prosper.
Sure there are all sorts of blurry lines like cancer and AIDS and such and I’m all for nuking those, but I’m saying nuke ’em, don’t just plod along with little pick-me-ups. Dump every effort on a global pandemonium scale and fix the sucker. Take pharmaceutical companies out of the funding loop because they’ll hold off on curing anything until they’ve nursed it for all its worth (pun partially intended).
It’s an uncomfortable idea because we don’t like seeing people suffer (actually we do, and we call it rubbernecking, but that’s another post). Let’s let it go anyway- we hate to see suffering. We feel sympathy for the aged and feeble and I accept that. I’m the same. I’m part of “we”.
But if I’d been in charge at the start you wouldn’t see aged and feeble suffering, would you?