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Are you afraid of getting older? You should be. Degenerative aging isn't pretty. That said, we live in an era characterized by a fascination with youth; aging and the old are put to one side, and the ugly details of the way in which the body and mind break down are glossed over or shoved under the carpet. Move on a step from that and you'll see the bevy of folk trying to sell you the message that aging into frailty and death before you're ready is just fine - that you shouldn't worry about it, that you should just relax into your life being taken from you, one piece at a time.
But those talking heads are spouting nonsense. You should absolutely be afraid of aging.
Wouldn't you be somewhat scared by an implacable man coming to steal your kidney, half your liver, and feed you poison that will waste way your muscles? Of course you would. The end result of the damage of aging is just as intimidating. Apologism for and acceptance of degenerative aging is a sort of Stockholm syndrome, if you ask me. Invisible forces hold you hostage, threatening you with a future of pain, suffering, and frailty - and based on what you've seen happen to others, the situation looks like ending badly for you. Under these circumstances, human psychology tilts in favor of (a) assigning imaginary faces and personalities to impersonal processes, and (b) trying to stay on the jailer's good side.
So you have people trying to accommodate aging; play a game of give and take, and strive to accept what happens as their physiology decays. Which is madness. The relationship between humanity and aging should better fit a war story, not a tale of slavery and acceptance. How are we going to dig ourselves out of this pit if all we do is pretend that things will be fine - or if not fine, at least acceptable?
Aging is a horror, but it isn't supernatural. It is the result of physical processes operating on the biological systems of our bodies. Physics, chemistry, biology. These are biological systems that can be repaired, replaced, and restored: medicine, therapies, biotechnology. But we need to develop the means to achieve that end: technologies capable of repairing and reversing aging are foreseen, proposed, and carefully described - just not yet researched and developed.
If we all sit back and accept the suffering that lies ahead, then medicines to fight aging will never be developed. It seems an easy choice to me, but I still hear those talking heads telling us that aging is just fine, and we should give in to it. So not all of us are sane and well informed, it seems.
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Posted by Reason
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