Help Wanted: Revolutionaries

I’m hanging out a “Help Wanted” sign.

Position?  Revolutionary – or rebel will do.

Pay? Don’t inquire – there isn’t any.

Benefits?  Intangible, personal, internal, mental.

Qualifications?  Middle age or later; mostly pissed-off at our culture; contrarian-by-nature/nurture; thick-skinned; immune to derision; Master degree or Ph.D. in toe-stubbing; audacious ager.

Requirements:  Stand in the breach; take a stand and some serious body blows in exchange for promoting a culture change.

Mission: Help straighten out a world that is “out of whack!”

In 2017, the 50-85+ age demographic in the U.S. reached 32% of the population.  That’s the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population.

You’d think a group that large and growing would deserve a little more respect.

Not happening!  Have you noticed?

So I’m up for seeing if we can turn that around.  Wanna join me?

Oh, you’re not feeling disrespected?

Great!  You are either already a revolutionary – or you’re in the waiting line for the disrespect – or maybe you’ve never felt any other way and don’t recognize it.

What’s the disrespect?  Our culture disrespects (or ignores) our biology i.e. our natural life processes.

That’s an argument posed by neuropsychologist Dr. Mario Martinez in his book “The Mindbody Self.”  His research is debunking the myths that view human biology “as mechanistic processes void of cultural influence in the causes of health and longevity.”

He advocates that it’s possible to “reweave our cultural fabric to release what no longer serves you and reclaim the personal excellence you were taught to ignore.”

He refers to the work in this area done by anthropologist Margaret Clark who advocates that anthropology and gerontology would benefit by working together.

Specifically, she proposes: “—that aging is a series of adaptations to the social systems embedded in cultures.  In other words, aging is strongly affected by how we adjust (adapt) to the constraints of our cultures.”

Some of the constraints that Martinez and Clark refer to that are present in our culture today are:

• Defined retirement age
• Age limits for hiring
• Gender restrictions
• Family authority and expectations
• Medical biases
• Rites of passage to elderly status

Martinez goes on further to remind us of other cultural influences, most of which can go either way in terms of benefit or detriment to our health and longevity:

• What we eat
• Our level of activity based on age
• Where we live
• How much risk we take in our lives
• Life expectancy
• Rituals that enhance or diminish our immune system’s defense against foreign bodies

We’ve had many “cultural editors” and “cultural co-authors” to help us down this path of cultural captivity – parents, peers, professors, pundits, politicians, policies – to name a few.

Martinez makes this seminal statement elsewhere in the book:

“Growing older is the passage of time; aging is what you do with your time based on your cultural beliefs.  (my underline).  Middle-age is one of those portals where culture will tell you how to behave, dress and what to expect – all without biological evidence to support that stage of your life.”

Centenarians are revolutionaries

Martinez’ research has included extensive study of centenarians worldwide.   There were a number of things about centenarians that stood out which he refers to it as the “centenarian consciousness”:

1. The so-called “longevity gene” was found in only 35% of centenarians and there was only a 25% correlation between their advanced age and their parent’s longevity. In other words, a genetics mindset went out the window.
2. They are contrarian in their view of what their culture expects of them.
3. Resilience is a core attribute. Setbacks, major illnesses, losses of loved ones and other major challenges are common with nearly all centenarians.
4. They are devoid of envy, replacing it with an attitude of appreciation and gratitude.
5. Very few of them retire.

Although Martinez doesn’t allude to this, I suspect that centenarians had adopted this contrarian attitude early in life in response to an awareness of the restrictive nature of many of our cultural influences.

It needs to be our time

– before we are completely run over.

Marc Freedman, in his excellent book “The Big Shift: Navigating the New Stage Beyond Midlife”, articulates well what we are facing.  He humorously references the orthodoxy that has developed and continues to mount, helped along by the media, academia, youth movement, et.al:

“America (and much of the developed world) is hurtling toward a situation in which tens of millions of people, arguably the biggest group in society, and a mighty political force to boot, are about to dominate the scene.  At somewhere around age sixty, they will, pretty much overnight, become the elderly, pass out of the “working-age population,” become incompetent and incontinent, bankrupt the health care system, vote for hefty increases in public spending on their retirement at the expense of everyone else, turn the Sun Belt into a giant golf course, and ignite a war that will, in the subtitle of the 2010 book ‘Shock of Gray’, pit ‘Young Against Old, Child Against Parent, Worker Against Boss, Company Against Rival, and Nation Against Nation.’”

His conclusion – which I agree with and which underscores my posting a Help Wanted appeal – is this:

We’re becoming “ – a nation in which the largest segment of society is at loose ends and under-engaged –  consigned to a kind of identity oblivion, fighting age discrimination, facing foreclosed opportunities, mired in personal stagnation, and bereft of purpose.”

Ouch!  Count me out!!

Ready to sign on?

I hope all this p_____s you off just a little.  I hope being viewed as “incompetent and incontinent” at any age stirs you up a little.  I hope you are concerned that going forward from middle-age that your accumulated skills, talents, and dreams are underappreciated and expected to go to the sidelines.

Short on revolutionary experience?

No marches, no signs, no confrontations for this role.

Training manual?  Yes – see above: centenarian consciousness

Slow?  You bet!

Sticks and stones? Yep!  Your culture-infused friends, family, and co-workers will be viewing you skeptically from their cultural fishbowl and may be unkind in their attitudes and/or comments.

Gratifying?  Absolutely, especially if you like going against the grain.

We best affect change in others through our own example.  That’s the route to a cultural change.  Gandhi provides a guidepost: “Be the change you want to see in others.”

I look forward to having you in the revolution.  Scroll down and leave us your thoughts.  Are you a contrarian, swimming upstream with your aspirations and goals?  How do you deal with the resistance?  What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced?