Ageism in America

Contempt

Culture, or the man made environment, differs from country to country. What is common and part of one culture may well be discarded and/or rejected by another culture. Contempt for those considered old is common and universal in the USA but is unknown in numerous other countries. 

There are several reasons for contempt for the aged in the USA. The first of these reasons for contempt of the old was the exploration of the West from the seventeenth century to 1890, when the frontier was closed with the settlement of California. From the late seventeenth century onward, pioneers traveled by covered wagons for vast miles west. These efforts at exploring the West were difficult and could hardly be sustained by old people who became a burden to the young who could endure the painful effort to reach the west. 

A second reason for contempt of the old in the USA was the decline of farming and the end of the one room schoolhouse. Before the First World War, over 50 percent of Americans were engaged in farming. That meant that the rural family consisted of three generations, including the grandparents of young children. The old continued on the farm as long as they were able and were part of the childhood experiences of rural children. Moreover, the one room schoolhouse was not graded, so that older and younger children saw each other every day. After 1920, all that changed. It was then that John Dewey lectured at several American universities and taught education students that schools should be graded and the one room schoolhouse abandoned. The grade school became universal after 1920 and required that all children had to attend school. Therefore children in higher grades were unknown to those in lower grades, so that the young no longer met their elders. After 1920, the number of farmers in the USA declined as more and more machines replaced farmers who had worked by hand. The production of food increased as the number of farmers decreased, and machines such as the McCormick reaper took the place of thousands of farmers.

The growth of cities led former farmers to work in offices and factories, so that many children seldom saw their fathers or any other men, as fathers came home late in the afternoon or in the evening and children saw them rarely. Family solidarity gradually declined, so that today, in the 21st century, almost all family life has disappeared, as children leave the towns and cities where their parents and grandparents live. This is called horizontal mobility. Vertical mobility, consisting of going to college out of town, finding work in a distant city, and marrying someone far from home has become common, at least among the upper middle class and others in business and in the professions. Many young people therefore do not know the older generation and consequently view them with contempt. 

The increase in industrialization is yet another reason for holding old people in contempt. Children learn a great deal about computers, which are unknown to old people. That is also true of many other industrial devices not known to old people but used constantly by schoolchildren. These young people view old folks as stupid, useless and benighted as the old may know nothing about computers and/or the latest scientific devices. This ignorance of the newest industrial development leads younger people to the conclusion that grandpa is an idiot and grandma stupid and useless. Finally, contempt for the old rests on appearance. Old people have wrinkled faces and bent backs, and walk slowly. They talk about their experiences in the Second World War, utterly unknown to younger people, who don't want to see or hear anything of interest to the old. Young people do not want to talk to old folks who seem to be ignorant of the current musical sensations and do not even know the names of current football greats or the antics of the most important movie star. 

All this leads to contempt of those who should commit suicide and thereby give young people a better chance at success, It is of course not remembered that those who hold all old people in contempt today will be old eventually. We don't want to see old people. We don't want to talk to them, and we don't want to them to bore you with their conversation. They are ugly, they are stupid, they smell, they are intolerable, they are idiots, and need to stay out of sight in a nursing home, which nurses no one but makes sure old parents keep their mouths shut and wrings enough money from them so that the staff can enrich themselves by stealing all the possessions of the "assisted living" victims.

Shalom u'vracha.

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