OLD AGE

[Stanley]

OLD AGE

My friend Steve has asked me to write one of my naïve occasional papers around the subject of old age. I suppose he regards me as qualified to do this because I'm in my 78th year and my friends have noticed that I have a predilection for examining my life and trying to make sense of it. We shall see whether any of this faith is justified.
The first thing I had to do was decide which way to come at the subject. We hear a lot today about 'the problem of an ageing population' and I reject this as a starting point because it suggests something that I don't agree with, that old people are a problem. My subjective view is that the fact that people are living longer is something to be celebrated and not feared. I shall try to justify this view that surviving beyond the biblical three score years and ten is a wonderful gift, not only for the individual but for society at large.
I have to make it clear at this point that everything I say refers to old people who have a good quality of life. There is nothing good about long life if it is unsupportable for any reason. I support the concept of a person being allowed to make a personal decision about opting out if that is what they desire. I see nothing noble or useful in being forced to continue to inhabit a body that is either racked with pain or has ceased to support a functioning brain. Like any other machine, it should be recycled. I can say this because at the moment I have a reasonably functioning body and I think my brain is still working well. Mind you, I have no way of proving this... I am reinforced in this view by the work of Professor Dame Linda Partridge at the Max Plank Institute for the Biology of Ageing at Cambridge University. She started from her research into fruit flies and has discovered that the controlling factor of health in old age seems to be genetic. When asked recently whether her research was, as is popularly perceived, directed towards increasing longevity she said no, it was an effort to find the keys to good health in the ageing body. She seems to share my belief that whilst longevity can be attractive, it is no use if it is not accompanied by good health and ability to function normally.
I have always said that a good life plan is to have twenty years childhood, twenty years doing what you have to do, twenty years doing what you want to do and then spend whatever time that remains being a useful member of society but with the ability to take as much leisure as you want. I've been lucky enough to have kept to this plan and am supported by my family in the style to which I have become accustomed. Believe me, I know how lucky I am, but also reflect on the fact that I must have done some things in my life correctly. They tell me that there is a gateway in the Escorial that carries the legend 'Take what you want and pay for it', my version is that you can enjoy the good things that come to you late in life because you have probably already paid for them! (Yes, I'm probably too smug for my own good.) How about this 'life plan'? All I can tell you is how I went about it and you will soon see that there is good reason to think that it wasn't so much my life plan as that of a guardian angel. Looking back, it just sort of happened!
This is not the place for my life story but a brief overview of some factors will help to clarify where my opinions originate. I had a variety of jobs (it would be presumptuous to describe these as a career path) which meant that I was mobile, seeing a lot of country and industries and asking a lot of questions on the way. At one point in my later career working on large boilers I was asked by a young co-worker how it was that I seemed to know something about everything. I told him that it was because I had had a wide variety of jobs, had never specialised and was incurably nosey, I was always asking 'Why?' Perhaps the most influential of these jobs was when I was one of the last engineers in charge of a steam-driven cotton weaving shed. I had to learn a complex subject very quickly and this made me do a lot of research and questioning of experts. During this process I met a man called David Moore who asked me whether I wanted to be a gipsy on the fringes of academe and end up by being a 'professional rough diamond' or whether I was prepared to do the job properly and embark on some serious study. To cut a long story short this led to me entering University and getting a qualification in history. From there I progressed through to some quite adequate personal research projects and finished up where I am today, a retired person who loves reading, research and writing. My main preoccupation these days is to try to empty my head of everything I have learned and make sure it is preserved for the future. In other words, sharing and putting something back into the society that has been so good to me.
That's where I am coming from, let's get down to the question of Old Age. I think I am at heart an optimist, so let's start with the advantages and perhaps in the process dispose of some of negative views that are current these days. The biggest benefit is freedom. This isn't simply the freedom to manage my own time by not having to work regularly for a living, although this is a wonderful state to be in, there are other freedoms as well. I am allowed (and sometimes exercise the privilege) to tell a woman that she is attractive without being perceived as a threat, after all it's obvious that a person my age is not pursuing an agenda! Mind you, I often tell people that just because there's snow on the roof it doesn't mean the fire has gone out. I find that I don't worry too much about what people think and so feel free to express views that in my youth could have been damaging. I've learned to trust my instincts and rely on the common sense that long experience has conferred on me. (But always remember that Einstein said that 'common sense' was no more than prejudices absorbed before the age of eighteen.) Being omnivorous about knowledge comes in handy here, reinforced by what I now see to be a good memory. If I'm asked a question about something I have such a vast hinterland of acquired experience and knowledge from my reading that I can immediately summon up enough material from my memory banks to have a clear internal picture before I give an answer. This sounds arrogant but it is a fact and I often think of Marvin the paranoid android in Hitch-hiker’s guide to the Universe who said, “Here I am, brain the size of a planet and all they ask me to do is open and close doors”. If you think of all the images you have seen and the experiences you have absorbed in almost eighty years of travel through life it's quite amazing. Something crops up and you immediately think “I've been there” or “I knew him” and this can be so satisfying. Mind you, as a friend once told me, it's all right to drop names but avoid hotels....
It strikes me that what I have just described is one of the major dividing lines between the old and the young. Easiest to describe by giving an example. Suppose there's a report in the news about a shooting in up-state NY. A young person reacts to this by imagining they were one of the children and relates to the news on this level. An older person takes in the deaths of the children and thinks of the parents. In my case I have seen one of my children die violently. I have seen mass death of children during WW2 when a nearby orphanage was destroyed by a land mine. In practical terms I know all about weapon construction, ammunition and the feel of using an automatic weapon, I can even smell the cordite. I have been to up-state NY and know the area, I am familiar with the interior of the standard American class-room and know teachers. There is much more but the point is that all this flashes into my brain in a nano-second and informs my reaction at a much more comprehensive level than a younger person could even comprehend, therefore my reaction might be hard for them to understand.
This example comes to mind because the same young colleague who asked me how come I knew so much came into the workshop at Rochdale after hearing the news of the Dunblane killings and was distraught because he had children of the same age and had immediately transferred the event to his own experience. After I had talked to him for a while he asked me why I wasn't as upset as him and I got the chance to explain to him about the effect of my depth of experience and my belief that I carried scar tissue which probably de-sensitised me to some extent.
If we accept that this mechanism is at work it could explain why so often there seems to be a gulf between the young and the old and what strikes me is that it can be bridged by explanation and communication. It may be that in any situation where an 'elder statesman' or an experienced person is in a leading position, say in politics or business, any guidance proffered should be tempered by a brief explanation of how it was arrived at. This informs my view that one of the worst aspects of current governance is that the leading figures come from a very narrow world and don't have the hinterland of experience that people like the old trade unionists had. A degree in Political Science is no substitute for a working life at the grass roots. It's noticeable that some of the most effective politicians had war service and had been brought up against some of the most fundamental human experiences.
As I said earlier, one of the most pleasant aspects of old age is the freedom from regular work. This could be a good place to start from to examine the modern debate about when people should retire and of course the age at which they should qualify for a pension. I have a very clear position on this, in principle it can be a good thing if a worker is given the freedom to decide when they stop working. I have been retired now for thirteen years but have continued working if you count my research and writing as work. In terms of the parameters used by the government to decide on eligibility for benefit, if it wasn't for my age I would be regarded as fit for some sort of work that involved the fields I am still active in. Mind you, I wouldn't welcome this because I would lose my freedom of action, no matter how understanding my employer was I doubt if he or she would be impressed by my habit of starting at four in the morning and having two hours sleep in the afternoon!
Then there is the type of work. It would be unfair to expect an old person to carry on working in a job which involved heavy physical activity. I've led such a life and I can tell you with certainty that after forty years the body starts to wear out. They say that hard work never killed anyone but this is a lie, it certainly makes you a funny shape. (By the way, in my experience the people who refer to 'the dignity of labour' invariably have never had to do it!)
My understanding of the genesis of the old age pension is that it was given as a recognition that after a life of useful work, often in very hard jobs and on low wages, it was only fair that the state should reward this loyalty by supporting the ex-workers in old age and of reducing the possibility of them becoming a charge on the state by another route, destitution and the Poor Law. In fairness it was given to everyone who reached the pensionable age regardless of their circumstances, in other words it was never intended to be means-tested. This being the case it is obviously unfair to hold back the pension if someone continues working. This is important when we consider the possible effect of older people carrying on in the world of work.
The most recent government policies are aimed at reducing the demands on the state of the benefits system. One aspect of this has been a revision of the retirement age under which a claimant has to be older to qualify for a pension. At the same time compulsory retirement at sixty five has been scrapped unless an employer can prove that age has resulted in a lowering of efficiency of the worker. At the same time youth unemployment has risen. Like many government policies, the combined affect of these measures is leading to some unintended consequences.
I was born in a time when there was always a job for school-leavers who were seen as a source of cheap labour. During the inter war years apprentices were taken on but as soon as they reached the age where they qualified for a journey-man's wage they were sacked and another apprentice taken on. (See 'Love on the Dole' by Walter Greenwood) This was obviously unfair but because the young person had gone straight from the time discipline of the school system to the equally rigid discipline of industry (often the best 'club' they had ever experienced) they were imprinted with the habit of getting up in a morning and seeking work. The worst effect of school-leaver's unemployment is that this imprinting never takes place because the transition is from work at school to idleness at home. Being old-fashioned I believe that the Devil finds work for idle hands, I was firmly imprinted in my youth with the Puritan Work Ethic which convinced me that useful work was the path to physical and spiritual fulfilment. I didn't see it in those terms at the time, all I knew was that I was happier when I was busy but this didn't reduce the beneficial effects.
A large percentage of the young nowadays never learn this lesson and one is allowed to wonder what the long term effect of this will be on reliance on state benefits, crime levels and an erosion of the normal processes of society by less incentive or opportunity to form another independent family unit via a relationship and children. It's instructive to look back to the emergence of the Domestic Textile Industry and how the income from this freed young people of the wait for parents to die before they could afford their own establishment. This resulted in earlier marriage, increased birth rates because they were more fertile and a general rise in population in areas where this route was open to the young with consequent benefits to society at large. Will the modern trend result in a lowering of the birth rate, fewer independent households and an increase in the average age of the population? Add to this equation the ridiculous rise in rents and house prices and the obstacles are even higher for the young.
The question that occurs to me is what effect the trend towards working longer will have on this situation. It seems to me that there is a simple equation, less old people walking out of the door to retirement means less jobs available inside the firm for new starters. Are the efforts being made to prolong working life and lowering the demand on the state of pensions and other benefits causing loss of trained workers for the future and a higher cost to the state in consequence of the drawbacks I outlined above? Has anybody done a proper cost-benefit analysis to quantify the long term effects? Or is what we are looking at a classic example of political short term thinking which in the end will backfire on welfare expenditure? Looking back at the example of 'Thatcher's Children' reared in houses where nobody was at work and recognising the social deterioration in terms of crime and drug use in the old single industry pit villages I get a sense of deja vu and my mind goes back to Ellen Wilkinson of Jarrow and her book 'The Town that was Murdered'. Yes it was a left wing polemic but that does not mean that it doesn't draw attention to truth. I suspect that what we are looking at now is a tragedy of the young and on these grounds I would argue for earlier and not later retirement.
Another consequence of old age is that unless you do something about it you gradually become invisible. One reason for this is that the young have a subconscious urge to ignore anything that reminds them of the inevitability of old age and eventual death. Lip service is paid to looking after the elderly but in truth they are largely ignored and a consequence of this is that they draw inwards and tend to form groups inside their own age range. 'Pensioner's Centres', 'Care Homes' and specialist organisations like Saga. These are all fine and necessary institutions but they all share one thing in common, lack of interaction with the young and isolation from the mainstream of society. Allow me to go off at a tangent, I promise it is pertinent. When I did the Lancashire Textile Project I was conducting in-depth interviews with people as old as a hundred years. I noticed that on first interview they were hesitant and seemed to distrust their own memory, a common response was “I'm too old to remember”. The remarkable thing was that the more interviews I did, the better their recall and the more confident they became in their own powers. This wasn't simply an effort to please me, as the information built up from more informants it became possible to cross-check statements and dates and almost without exception the recollections were accurate. I drew attention to this at the time and suggested that getting old people to talk about their lives and experiences could be a good therapy to delay the onset of what is now seen as a scourge of our times, dementia in the old. I realise that part of this is because people are living longer but still believe that if you want to keep it, use it! This applies to our brains as much as any other part of our bodies. Writing this essay is part of my brain gymnasium!
Another advantage of old age is that if you sit on the river bank long enough the bodies of your enemies float by. I know that Sun Tzu had a literal meaning in mind but the principle applies in other ways. Vera and I had three daughters, they in turn had six children and one of my grandchildren has just presented me with a great grandson. Because of the miracles of modern communications I talk daily to them all. If anyone had told me forty years ago that I would have seen our children retiring and watched a third generation springing from my loins I would have laughed but that is the position I am in now, I am the patriarch of a large and loving family. I can't emphasise too much what a blessing this is and I look back and reflect that Vera and I had to learn about child-rearing and life on the job, and while we undoubtedly made mistakes, the results fifty years on suggest that we must have got some things right! While we are on the subject of getting things right I should point out that one of the most corrosive things that can attack in old age is guilt for some major sin you have committed. If the fates have decreed that you are going to be in this position there is no way you can get the burden off your back. It is important that parents embed this principle in their children. Regrets over minor matters are part of the human condition and can't be avoided. Luckily they do not spoil your life like guilt does.
As I said earlier, in terms of a life-plan I am a bad example, things just happened. Some of these were bad but the majority were good. I had a good childhood, never had a job I didn't enjoy, never lost my curiosity and never knowingly missed an opportunity to move forward and improve not only my life but the lives of my family, and of late, the wider world through sharing my writings. I can't give you any reasons how or why this happened, it is too consistent to be simply luck. The nearest I have ever got to an explanation is that somewhere in my varied ancestry I inherited something that worked like a moral compass. I never knew I had it but it unobtrusively shaped me, my decisions and eventually my life. The nice thing is that I see evidence of this in my family. I watch them meet enormous obstacles and triumph over them, I approve their decisions without reservation, I love them without condition. And yes, I recognise that this could simply be seeing them through rose-tinted spectacles but who cares? The effect is wholly beneficial to me and in terms of life management that is what it is all about.
One last attribute I seem to have which I have always considered useful is my ability to trust my instincts. I remember a young friend, Daniel Meadows, once commenting that I seemed to be able to make instant judgements about people on first acquaintance. He had noted that I either warmed immediately to people or discarded them. He was right and I told him I couldn't explain it. I always remember an exchange in MASH between Hawkeye and Winchester when the latter was complaining that people he met seemed to take an instant dislike to him. Hawkeye said “Look at it this way. It saves so much time!” I rest my case. One other facility that has always puzzled me is the fact that I seem to have a built-in crap detector. It starts whining occasionally and I always take note of it. I suspect this is closely related to the instant judgements and the ability to recognise a good thing when I see it and grab it before it escapes.
So, Old Age, my conclusions. Given reasonable health and the resources to maintain yourself in the manner to which you have become accustomed, it is a fine thing. If it is reinforced by a loving family and an absence of guilt or too much regret it can be beautiful. Good communications with your family and the outside world are essential, if you can retain your sense of curiosity and adventure and communicate it to others you will have a sense of continuing value to the world and despite your waning powers in some areas you will retain your sense of self-worth and dignity. It helps if you have an interest in health and nutrition as this pays rich dividends in later life.
In terms of society and the Old. I suppose it is only after a long life and wide experience that you realise how valuable the elderly are to society. They are a source of information and advice. They are not a threat to the young simply because they are nearing death which is not a thing to be feared. The young must learn that the measure of a life is what you leave behind you, your children and your work. They should listen to the old and try to absorb this lesson as in the end they will come to the same stage and it's important that they do not do so filled with regret about what might have been. I do not believe that society is best served by avoiding paying an adequate pension for as long as possible or keeping the elderly in work. Far better to clear out the work spaces and infuse fresh blood as soon as possible. Spend less on non-productive things like bigger and better ways of killing and more on training, education and finding ways of absorbing old people into society as an asset. Get rid of the idea that the elderly are a hindrance to progress and economic productivity, quite the opposite could be true, their combined wisdom and life experience is one of the most valuable assets society can have. Always remember that 'as I am now, so shall you be'. Life is a terminal disease and should be embraced as such, it is better to travel hopefully than arrive!
[I'm pretty certain that all the above could be seen by some as the ramblings of an old man and incredibly smug. I apologise if this is the case but would urge you to think about some of the points I have made. There may be the occasional nugget in there if you take the trouble to dig it out!]

SCG/30/05/13

[Tizer]

I'm glad Steve asked you to write this `occasional paper', it's a great contribution to the debate and also benefits from being upbeat about old age, something that's urgently needed instead of anti-depressants.

With my recent experience of elderly parents I'm concerned by the move towards encouraging the elderly to stay in their own homes rather than move into communal and `sheltered' accommodation. Yes, it's good to be surrounded by the familiar house and its contents but it's not the best solution for everyone. The house can get into a terrible, even dangerous state, and the parents can become isolated from social interaction. Now my father has moved into a flat in an `Extra Care House' he's meeting up with other people and is happier even though he resisted the move and was sure life would be worse. As more people stay in their own homes it also deprives the communal homes of the more healthy individuals and leaves them with those least able to look after themselves. I hope the government might begin to see these unintended consequences of its money-saving policy of keeping the elderly in their own homes.

[Stanley]

Thanks for the comment Tiz and Bodge for the thanks. I think you are right about the unintended consequences and it applies to so many of the short term policies that are being churned out in the name of 'debt reduction'. Funny thing is that it doesn't seem to be reducing..... It was a big subject and I thought I'd rabbited on long enough! Encouraging that it's had 60 page views already.....

[Stanley]

I never covered the drying up of lubrication with old age did I. An oversight, it's evidently more common than I thought.

[plaques]

Probably like most men of advanced years you start to wonder how much time you have left before you shuffle off this mortal coil. The good news is that by the time we reach 70 nearly 80% of us are still here. The bad news is that at 95 statistically we have all gone. Roughly a straight line decline of just over 3% per year. Then out of the blue the Government declares we are all living longer. Now that’s a real vote winner. Who can resist all those years extra sitting around watching the world go by.
Then we start to look at the small print. Over the past 10 years these extra years equate to an additional 2.5 years (3.6% at 70 years). Worth having but not quite in the song and dance category. The dropout rate is still the same and the ultimate end point has hardly moved at all.
Of course there is a price to by for this bonanza of longevity. You have to work longer. A 4% increase over your working life. Remember this applies to those who don’t get to 70. Also, any occupational pension now takes 25 years to recoup instead of the previous 14 years. To my annoyance we have now been re-labelled as “Baby Boomers”. Soon it will be “Useless Mouths”. Euthanasia beckons. .
Why can’t they leave us alone and let us enjoy our twilight years talking about our arthritis, cataracts, diabetes and all those other fun things that old age brings.

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/mortality ... to-Old-Age

[Bodger]

Stanley, not quite as old as you , i'm a child of 1937, but still of reasonably good health, i left school at 14, with no qualifications, but at one stage of my life i was a works director of a major industrial company in the Bunzl plc group, i also ran personallly two businesses a bar for a few years, and then after retirement i worked as a industrial consultant in the plastics industry.
In my lifetime , i have bought houses, upgraded them, ie rewired, installed central heating , and re modelled their structure,, i put in to my own workshop 3 phase electric at 250 kva, i still do all my own maintenance, electric, plumbing, building, and though i am dying, "slowly, i hope", ie , i have diabetes, stents fitted in my artery, skin cancer, involving skin grafts, enlarged prostate , but i,m still as fit as a fiddle !, and as i write this i have a 24 hour heart monitor hanging around my neck, but today was our youngest daughters birthday, so whatever the monitor will read it will include a good few pints of Guinness, all i can say is that i enjoy life, and even though i have had a lot of knocks in life, they were only problems to be overcome, after all a problem is only an opportunity in disguise.

[Stanley]

P, Just ignore them! They are not talking about us, simply worried about their own mortality.
Bodge, Nowt like a busy life and an enquiring mind to hone you up for retirement. Best bonus is that I don't give a damn now for what the 'others' say or think. Crack on and spread the word! Best to you both.

[Nolic]

I'm nobbut a young 62 but other then when the children were young and perhaps my late teens I would say this is the best time in my life. I'm OK for money, in reasonable health and choose to work for myself in a role that I just love.... and I think I'm doing a bit of good too. Nolic

[plaques]

The Last Muster. By Hubert von Herkomer (1875)

I’ve always rather liked this painting. “Sunday at the Royal Hospital Chelsea”.

Showing a fellow “Pensioner” checking the pulse of his companion. What a way to go. No fuss, no bother. Just quietly fading away.

Remember “More people rust away than wear away”

[Stanley]

Sounds about right Colin and I agree with every word you say. That's my experience as well. Means we sleep well at night....
On the same subject I saw the pics of how not to conduct a heated domestic dispute. These people may have a lot of material advantages but in terms of how to live a life they are in chaos and in reality no better than inexperienced kids. How did we get to be so adept at running our lives? I have this mental picture of what would happen if anyone did that to Mrs Nolic.....

[Stanley]

Bumped and eight years later I agree with every word. Yesterday as I rescued Kev's lad's microphone stand I said that it was quite wonderful to be useful in your 86th year! Who'd have thought it?

[Big Kev]

It was greatly appreciated too.

[Stanley]

Kev than you for coming to me. It's so good for me to be useful.....

[Stanley]

Ten years since Steve asked me to write this..... I still agree with every word so bumped again.....