Currently there is a new ism, as if there are not enough already! Unfortunately, as it is, most all people hardly digest the existing ism's real well. Most often, there is mere self-righteous jingoism and high funda terminology, rather jargon, which is both exhibitionistic and terrorising. Well, right now, that is not the issue I am trying to discuss.
I want to attract your attention to the most active and quite dangerous, actually rather stupid, ism now. It is ageism. True, it is not exactly very new. Sure it shows no modernity of attitude or perspective. Yet, these days, it is absolutely rampant.
You must have often observed how most people forever pretend that they are young, and as if to establish that invincible truth, they are forever interested in proving how xyz is older.
Personally, I find the whole exercise rather pitiful, and quite funny. In my opinion, it proves the total and complete insecurity of such people. Actually, each one of us is sure older than someone else. Why, a baby born last week is going to be older than a baby born a minute ago, right?
Hence i find this obsession with ageism rather pathetic. It often assumes two forms. On the one hand, such buffoons try to establish that they are young. On the other, there is quite a desperate, and hence rather pathetic and quite comic, effort to prove how someone else is older.
To begin with, i have never understood which way or how or why it is wrong to be old. It is very much a natural process. In fact, ever since a human being crosses his/her twenties, the process of ageing starts silently.
Why then pathetically prove to be younger, and, in a ridiculous and shallow way, in comparison with someone else? Making someone else's line shorter/bigger, in this context, lifeline older/younger, is not going to change the reality in any way, right?
Actually, the older you are, the more charming you are, is my opinion. You have everything, wisdom, maturity, perspective, and these days, youthfulness, too, as in the ageing world today, most all people live comfortably into their eighties. The medicines are better, there are hospices in the worst case scenario!
Why, the world over, the retiring age is trending to be seventy. As it is, in India where the workforce is mostly in the informal sector, there is no retiring age as such. With all sorts of start-up's, things are okay if you are ready to work smart. Need to learn a new skill? YouTube onwards, there are multiple possibilities, right?
In fact, recently i read a write-up by Shashi Tharoor that argued that the best working years are sixty to eighty. True, indeed, especially if you are in to creative stuff. Moreover, the avenues for showcasing your talents and abilities are infinite, too, given the internet, right?
Why then that obsession with proving how someone else is older than you? I suppose, that kind of cheap competitiveness comes from consumerism that post globalisation flourished like grass in the rainy season. For such a mindset, every person, each relationship is more for show-off-ism and one-up-man-ship than any real connect.
Personally, i feel though that such an attitude is an insult to one's own self. I am firmly of the opinion that my best competitor is my own self, yesterday, today and tomorrow. So long as i am a tad better than what i was yesterday, and i am going to be a shade nicer every which way tomorrow, nothing else matters.
Given this attitude, i find ageism quite funny, and rather pointless, too. What say? We are our energy, as they say, not our years, right? So long as you are curious, open-minded, eager to learn anew, you are forever young, what say?
Pratima@ Who is afraid of calendar years? 😂🤣😂Bliss it is to be born a human being. And, to be old-n- mature is sheer h(e)aven. Wordsworth would sure accept my apologies, for the playful gamification of his words!
No comments:
Post a Comment