Word: ageism
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Racism, sexism, and "ageism" are all linked, and current policies involving the elderly, while ignoring broader economic and social issues have failed to remove discrimination, Kuhn said...
...Ageism and Usefulness...
...first half of your Essay on ageism [March 24] represented an open mind, but you slipped into the closed mind of "vital use." The trap of our culture is believing that people can live if they are useful. What is important is not "being useful" but "being." We do not sell grandmothers' smiles in the local supermarket...
TIME'S Essay "Looking Askance at Ageism" [March 24] reminds me of a delightful old fellow from Atlanta I met some years back. The future-minded gentleman, then 93, told me he had just purchased a large amount of acreage. When I asked what his plans were, he replied, "Well, I think I'll hold on to it for a few years, then develop...
...that ageism, thanks to a backlash that has come from such groups as the Gray Panthers, is becoming less virulent. One ought to add that attitudes had better change. American society contains an ever swelling number and proportion of older people. Today nearly 25 million Americans, or 11.2% of the total, are over 65, and the ratio of that bracket is rising sharply. To foreclose senior citizens from society's respect and affection will mean more in the future than pain to the graying population. It will mean serious generational conflict for everybody...