Here is one of our best journalists, author of The Age of American Unreason, a worthy update to the Richard Hofstadter classic. And her more recent book is brilliant: Never Say Die: The Myth and Marketing of New Old Age.
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This comes to mind because yesterday Harriet looked in the mirror and said, "I'm an old lady. I need peace and quiet."
A great deal of cultural and corporate bullshit goes against this notion. We worship youth. We fear death. We pretend age is a state of mind, not a biological fact. Jacoby has as finely tuned a bullshit detector as you'll find and shows the truth about aging, not a myth that self-destructs because it has no scientific basis.
I used to kid Harriet, it's time to act your age. "I'm an old lady. I need peace and quiet." It's a horrid, sadistic culture that believes there is something wrong with this.
Harriet bought into the bullshit. I never have. That's my only explanation for why she fell and not I.
America really is a very sick culture. Susan Jacoby nails it.
This comes to mind because yesterday Harriet looked in the mirror and said, "I'm an old lady. I need peace and quiet."
A great deal of cultural and corporate bullshit goes against this notion. We worship youth. We fear death. We pretend age is a state of mind, not a biological fact. Jacoby has as finely tuned a bullshit detector as you'll find and shows the truth about aging, not a myth that self-destructs because it has no scientific basis.
I used to kid Harriet, it's time to act your age. "I'm an old lady. I need peace and quiet." It's a horrid, sadistic culture that believes there is something wrong with this.
Harriet bought into the bullshit. I never have. That's my only explanation for why she fell and not I.
America really is a very sick culture. Susan Jacoby nails it.
posted from Bloggeroid
