Lucinda Holdforth, Going On And On

 

- The back cover blurb on this book sums it up perfectly:

'What do we owe future generations?

And how do we act now to support them?

One way is to think - hard - about the damage our obsession with longevity is wreaking on the economy, our society and our future.

Australia's aged care crisis is escalating as Baby Boomers grow old. According to latest research, our ageing population is as great a risk to Australia's future as climate change and looming geopolitical risks - yet we're refusing to talk about it. 

As Lucinda Holdforth argues, we have become defined by a narcissistic refusal by ageing leaders to grow old or give up the reins of power - or even squarely face the fact that we must eventually die. The disastrous consequences include blocked political progress, the disenfranchised young people and death of the essential cultural renewal that once occurred with the natural blooming of each new generation. 

As we strive to extend our lives to the maximum, we must ask ourselves difficult questions. What is our social contract with those who come after us? Why is 'ageism' unacceptable while age-based prejudice against the young is commonplace? And what price will our younger citizens pay for the rest of us going on and on?'

- Holdworth has written a real treasure of a book. In very lucid prose she addresses in detail all the major issues associated with the ageing process, particularly the negative effects it has on the younger generations. And she litters the book with fascinating statistics. The clarity of her argument is highly convincing.  

- Baby Boomers are a major problem. As George Bernard Shaw put it in Heartbreak House: 'Old men are dangerous: it doesn't matter to them what is going to happen to the world'. 

- Euphemisms and blather dominate the discussions doctors, carers and clergy have with old, dying people. Frankness and honesty are rare. Surgery and medications to sustain meaningless lives are the easy option. 'To live well and to die well' should be the central focus, and 'deliver happier and more peaceful deaths for patients and less trauma for families'. 

- Holdsworth wants Australia's euthanasia laws to be far more progressive and meaningful. 'Today there will be people who don't want to live at all costs, for they have lived long enough. They feel their life to be whole, resolved, completed. They are ready to end it in an orderly self-directed way - and ready to hand over to the next generation'.  

- Consider this: 'As the 2023 Intergenerational Report tells us, by 2063 almost a quarter of Australians will be aged between 65 and 85, more than double their number today.' 

- Consider this: 'Thomas Jefferson was 33 years old when he wrote the Declaration of Independence. Alexander Hamilton was 21 and James Monroe was just 18. Contrast that with today's Washington 'one decrepit old president after another, and the US Senate described by former presidential candidate Nikki Haley as 'the most privileged nursing home in the country'.  

- Enough already!