Basic HTML Version
March 1971
productive Jife with responsibilities that
would have warded off senility.
Active Minds
Now contrast this, for example, with
the life of Konrad Adenauer, who
became West Germany's Chancellor at
the age of 69 and died while still active
at age 91. Adenauer was health con–
scious all of his life.
Oc
take the fabulous life of Sir Win–
ston Churchill. Sir Winston was well
over 65 before he reached his height of
productive power.
When he was 65, the name of Win–
ston Churchi ll was all but unknown to
the populace of the United States. As
Europe was facing her darkest hour, as
the very existence of Britain was in
doubt, Churchill carne on the scene.
What if he had said, "Sorry, 1 have
retired - 1 am just too old"?
In a book by Oarence B. Randall
titled
Sixt)'-Five P/111,
the author had
this to say of Churchill: "H is life
reached its greatest usefulness at sixty·
five plus, and then went on growing
through seventy-five plus.
"At forty he was bold, but reckless,
facile of speech, but unseasoned in
judgmcnt.
Not tmtil his very senio1·
)'ears did he reach the tmshakeable peak
of leadmhiP"
(page
11).
Fortunate
were Britain, Europe and America that
Winston Churchill was old enough to
have good judgment when this crisis
carne along!
Churchill was a renowned historian
and
an accomplished painter. He did not
let his mind stagnate.
There are, of course, many such
examples of over-65-year-old produccrs.
Charles de Gaulle ruled France and
Chiang-Kai-shek created a new nation
on Taiwan in the time of life when
most men are thinking of retiring.
But you say, "These were world
renowned leaders. They were highly
educated, what about common people
like us?" Obviously, only a few have
the magnitude of ability - and the
chance - for world renown. But
ALL
CAN APPLY
these same principies. Many
are not nearly so limited as they think
they are. Everyone can use his abi lities
- however limited they may appear -
to his fullest capacity.
The
PLAIN TRUTH
To do so is extremely important. The
mind
mrut
continue to be used and
developed -
oc
it deteriorates.
Dr. lrving Lorge, a psychologist at
Columbia University ran a series of tests
conclusively proving that older people
for years lose nothing in mental power
if they
keep rrp their active i1tte1·ests.
"Yo111" body gets old," De.
Lorge says,
"b11t not
JOflf
mind
I F YOU CARE TO
USE IT.
The mind never retires!"
All too many of our elderly have
been sidetracked by society and have not
made adequate use of their minds. They
do not keep up any active interests. The
mind is allowed to grow old with the
body, when it doesn't have to. And this
actually increases the aging process of
the body.
Wbere Elderly Fit in Society
What can an older person do to be a
productive member of the human race?
What can he do to avoid poverty, ill
health, loneliness, housing problems?
Foc sorne of thcse problems there just
are no ideal solut ions in the present
structure of society. Something is wrong
with society - but human leaders
haven't learned what it is that needs
correction. Governments are desperately
struggling to provide merely the physi–
cal needs. They have little or no time to
worry about providing a meaningful
existence or a place in society -
oc
to
guestion whether society needs to be
changed. Governments usually just
appropriate money and then wonder
why the problem doesn't vanish.
The "philosophy of aging" - the
role of the elderly in our society - is
an enigma to government leaders. There
are definite
REASONS
why.
"A secure position for the aged can
exist only under conditions that
CAN–
NOT BE FOUND
in a modero indus·
trial society," wrote Ben Seligman in his
book,
Permanenl Pove1·ty, A11 America11
Syndrome.
"If
the aged owned or controlled
property," he continued, "on which
younger persons depended, if they were
transmitters of culture who held key
blocks of knowledge, if they provided
significant links to the past, if the
extended family were still central to our
mode of life, if our society were tradi-
25
tiort oriented, and if the output of the
aged were in any way economically use–
fui,
then the aged would still be hon·
ored" (pages 64-65).
There you have it, in a nutshell. Here
stated are the vital ingredients to a soci–
ety in which the aged could have the
dignity, respect and place necessary to
life. And yet, these very ingredients are
generally not to be found in our mod–
ern, technologically oriented society.
These ingredients can be found only
in a family-oriented society.
Role of the Aged - Past,
Present and Future
In the past, the attitude toward the
aged members of society has differed
greatly from culture to culture. The
ancient Hebrews and Greeks, among
others - and the Scots, Irish and Chi–
nese until very recently - operated
under patriarchal societies and showed
great respect for the elderly. The
influence of that system is still felt
among many of their descendants.
Among other civi lizations, on the
other hand, it was the accepted custom
to abandon the aged and leave them to
die. Among the Chukchi Siberian tribe,
for example, it was the sacred duty of
the son to take his own father's life
when his powers began to wane. The
father encouraged his son to carry out
this obligation. The Eskimos at one
time froze their old people to death.
Other societies marooned their elderly
at sea, or left them to die on a mountain
top.
Every nation and every epoch has
found its own method of dealing with
its old-age problems.
The Method of the
Andent Hebrews
The most workable and truly honor·
able system historically recorded is that
of the ancient Hebrews. The Hebrews
had a "national phi losophy on the
aging" which provided a "meaningful
place in society" for the elderly.
In effect, the Hebrew law fulfilled
every one of Ben Seligman's points pre·
viously quoted. The aged did own and
control property. As a matter of fact,
there was a law that forbade the selling
of one's inherited family property.
Their law stated, "The field of the sub·