Do Old People ‘Have a Duty To Die And Get Out Of The Way?’

Ageism is back. “You’re too damned old” is back. Bigly.

Obama White House Archives

Back in 1984, I interviewed then Colorado Governor Richard Lamm for a business magazine that I was the editor of at the time. Lamm had just gone viral — the old fashioned pre-internet way — with a much-requoted speech that argued that “old people have a duty to die and get out of the way.”

What he actually said was that elderly people who are terminally ill have a duty to die and get out of the way instead of trying to prolong their lives by artificial means. But, as with so many of today’s memes, the context was forever lost.

Gov. Lamm, who will be 84 in August and is still working as co-director of the Institute for Public Policy Studies at the University of Denver, is a CPA by training and one of those policy wonks who believe that making health care policy decisions based on what is best for every individual rather than society as a whole is wasteful, unsustainable and, ultimately, immoral. It’s not a popular position but it is rational and has plenty of quiet advocates.

And it’s hardly a new concept. One of my favorite movies of all times is Japanese filmmaker Shôhei Imamura’s 1983 The Ballad of Narayama, which is based on a 19th-century practice called obasute, in which elderly infirmed people who became a burden to their families were carried into the mountains and abandoned to the “Gods.”

I began with this story because age and ageism are back in the news. Joe Biden’s first debate performance and Donald Trump’s not so subtle digs about Biden being “Sleepy Joe” and “not the man I remember” are obvious attempts to paint Biden as “too old” and “out of touch.” The speculation about Robert Meuller’s testimony “performance” has been topic one among the chattering heads in the days since. Words like “acuity” and “optics” are endlessly bantered around to the detriment of the substance of his monumental 448-page report.

Joe Biden is getting the same treatment from younger people in his own party. If he doesn’t come off like a young Ronald Reagan in the debate this week, he’s toast.

True, Donald Trump is only one year younger than Meuller but he has been loudly promoting himself nonstop for more than 50 years and is never concerned if what he is saying is actually true or accurate. He is experienced at media and an idiot savant of “persuasion.” He is an actor who played a billionaire on TV for many years and is now appearing as president in our daily lives. While I find his performance unconvincingly, too many others do.

The most frightening aspect of the new era of age-shaming is that it drives yet another wedge in our already fractured national psyche. It not only pits brown against white and many older blacks; it pits young versus old. The appeal of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Squad is precisely that they are young and daring and reckless and sick of old white men and women abandoning what they consider principles for the sake of politics or even practicality.

Young Democrats see Republicans succeeding by race-baiting and brute force. They want to stop playing nice. They want it all and they want it now.

Speaking as an old white person (age 76), I must confess I’ve been slow to recognize the passion and frustration that millions of young people are feeling about having to vote for the same old faces and getting the same old results.

I had an exchange with one of the young moderators on Reddit the other day which was a total wakeup call. I’m omitting his handle and if you’re easily offended by crude language you might want to skip it . I had submitted my Is Joe Biden About to Be Meullered piece to one of the sub Reddit forums.

This is the response:

Post Reply Is Joe Biden About To Be ‘Muellered?’ from xxxxxxvia /r/media_criticism sent an hour ago This article is correct in its assumptions about the media only caring about how things look, but it is god damned moronic in the idea that old men being fucking old and losing their fucking minds while still being at the reigns of our government isn’t somehow a problem. Probably because Jerry Bowles is himself a fucking fat old fart, who, like the other fat old farts, assume they will never, ever lose control of their faculties, it doesn’t matter how old they get. No. Shut the fuck up. I’m tired of hearing about people like that old woman who voted for Brexit and then died four days later. I don’t give a fuck what party or what country it is, old people have got to move the fuck over out of government because they are royally fucking up the future for young people all over the fucking planet. Jerry Bowles can go stick his head in a fucking pig, because Biden is absolutely an old codger who does not need to be in fucking charge.

Rude? For sure. Crude? Obviously. Insulting? Maybe.

But I must admit that I’m not sure I totally disagree with the obnoxious little schmekel.

Maybe it’s time for that one-way bus ticket to Narayama, mon amour.