Our culture promotes the belief that aging means decline, dependence and dementia, or at best isolation and depression—yet most elders are healthier, better educated and productive both economically and socially, than they were earlier in life

Researcher, writer and activist Lillian Zimmerman has grown weary with what she calls the “crisis mentality about the horrors of aging“—and the broad notions of “decline” that accompany views about aging in our society. The octogenarian says the negative views of aging fail markedly to look at the positive aspects of aging. She’s also aware of rampant ageism in society at large, but argues that older people are healthier, better educated and productive both economically and socially, than they were earlier in life. “We don’t decline when we turn 65,” Lillian writes, “In fact we continue to develop and create innovative new ways of being older.”

Lillian Zimmerman has been labeled a “super senior” by The Province newspaper, but  she doesn’t like the “senior” label: “It’s simply outdated. When you use the word “senior,” the picture you get is of someone on the margins of society. There is a whole new world of how older people are living their lives.”

In a recent commentary, Zimmerman observes that, in response to the current aging en masse phenomenon (associated with the boomer demographic), the media almost incessantly beats ageist drums, seeing population aging as a crisis:

The emphasis ranges from the idea that an aging population will threaten our public programs, if not our entire economy. “The Grey Tsunami” or aging as a “time bomb waiting to explode” are by now familiar references.

Here is a headline from the financial section of a Canadian newspaper: “Plan your finances now while you still can.” Another knockout is a current TV ad telling us, “The average Canadian will spend their last 10 years of life in sickness.”

This is utter rubbish, given recent studies expounding a theory of the “compression of morbidity,” meaning it is the last 30 days of life when dying occurs that generates high medical needs and more expensive care.

This view of aging as a calamity establishes what I term a “culture of loss,” the attitudes generated by these negative perspectives. This culture produces common beliefs that aging means decline, dependence and dementia, or at best isolation and depression. Thus older people and aging boomers feel threatened and fearful, as indeed do younger people by this emphasis on deterioration.

Zimmerman focuses on a recent poll conducted by Leger Marketing for the “Revera Report on Happiness” revealing that, contrary to widely-held stereotypes, research shows the older you are, the happier and more optimistic you are about aging:

Revera Inc. asked Canadians aged 18-32 (Gen Y), 33-45 (Gen X), 46-65 (Boomers), 66-74 (Seniors) and 75-plus (Older Seniors) about their attitudes towards aging. The survey found seniors are very positive about their later years, saying things like “age is just a number,” “you never stop living life to the fullest,” and “the best is yet to come.” This sense of optimism underscores the need to challenge potentially ageist assumptions about aging and recognize the valuable contributions of older adults to society.

But there are social justice challenges in this area as well. An almost-life-long (i.e. “since the 1960s”) feminist, Lillian Zimmerman told Aging Horizons that as she aged, she began to take notice of the way older women are mostly “invisible.” “I followed the data and reports, and I found single, older women to be among the country’s poorest (as are some men, too), but nobody seemed to pay much attention.” Her observations culminated in a book called Bag Lady or Powerhouse?

We speak with Lillian Zimmerman.

472_may_02_2013_sm   Left-click to listen; right-click to save.

Image of Lillian Zimmerman from The Province.

video

Grandparenting in the 21st Century—Simon Fraser University Seniors Outreach Project. A roundtable discussion with Dr. Gloria Gutman, Professor Emeritus, SFU Gerontology Dept., Lillian Zimmerman, Research Associate, SFU Gerontology Dept., Alan Herbert, former member Vancouver City Council, and Dr. Alan David Aberbach, moderator and Director, SFU Seniors Program (March 2010)