No Country for Old Men, and no world for old women!

[vickitulsa]

Haven't even seen the new movie, but I'm hearing interesting comments in reviews.

And the follow-up part, after the comma, was just what came immediately to my mind tonight as I pondered that movie title: "No world for old women!"

I suppose one could lump them together with even more brevity, and just say, No place for old people, period.

Not just being sarcastic, here, and certainly not frivolous. Far from it! What use does this modern world have anymore for those of us who are aging and likely to be seen as a burden, nothing more?

I'm beginning to wonder if youngsters today just don't think about ever being "in our shoes" in part because they have a sad or jaded notion that things are so bad already, they aren't likely to live to be old, when they would need care and concern.

Many of us felt that way back in my youth, in the heyday of the famous 60's, after all, didn't we? And with good cause, living under the gloomy shadow of the nuclear annihilation cloud as we did then, right? Wasn't that really what led so many of us to "tune in" to the "drop out" message? And then follow through on it to the extent we dared, or to the depth we feared?

I recall that when I was only an eighth-grader, the Cuban Missile Crisis scared the bejeezus out of me and convinced me that, even if the global thermonuclear war that seemed inevitable in those weeks didn't rain fallout on us all immediately, it would happen sooner or later anyway.

It was bound to happen, soon to come. The die was cast, the triggers cocked, the barrels loaded. No way around it, for sure.

How different was that from how kids these days must feel with regard to global climate change and pervasive war and terror? My senator (Inhofe the Idiot) may think "global warming is a hoax," but today's youth damn well know it isn't!

And what does this state of mind imply in terms of implications for their own lives and concerns?

Why, indeed, SHOULD they care about old people?

[Demeter]

1. Perhaps Because the Old People Care About Them?

Has all family feeling died in this country finally? Are we all GOPpers now?

[glowing]

3. Children do not respect their elders because they barely know who they

are anymore. They are sitting in day care and school... Parents are busy working, and the baby boomer grandparents usually live farther away and are still working themselves. There really is less of a chance to understand some of the wisdom you are supposed to gain from your elders, but most of these elders seem stuck in a nursing home living out the remainder of their years sucking down the meds living between depressed, dimentia, or worse.

[vickitulsa]

6. You certainly touched on some true points.

There were no replies for awhile and I fell asleep reading other threads. Just awoke and was glad to see at least some folks responded to my middle-of-the-night musings, grim though they were.

I just went through four months with no computer after mine died this summer, before a friend gave me her old one when she got a new laptop three weeks ago. Never realized just how isolated I am until that loss of contact. Seems like everyone is too busy, even if they do care enough to get in touch or check in on me. I still check on them as best I can, which is much easier with a PC again.

Your post reminded me of my sociology studies decades ago in college, and a paper I did on Native American tribes in which the grandparents were always included in the busy lives of their progeny and in fact were needed to help raise their grandchildren, teach them things -- important life things they don't learn in school.

I was concerned I sounded bitter in my OP, but you couched the subject in very reasonable terms that point up all the more what I was saying, with some good explanations. Thanks for your input!

[Audio_Al]

2. Hi Vicki -- it's 2 AM Pacific Time and the bed calls, but I could discuss this endlessly for hours.

Global warming is a reality. I held my little grandson on my lap tonight at dinner. He was born in this century -- and will turn 7 on December 1st. I had just read the alarming climate change report just released on Saturday in Spain. I'm trying my best not to be depressed. That little boy will only be 20 in 2020 -- and by that time, the changes may be so extreme that we will not be able to even remember the way things were when I was 20.

I hope the world will be kind to him and his sister. My wife teases him that she changed HIS diapers for a long time, and she expects HE will change HERS when she gets older.

Meanwhile, the Asian and Hispanic folks around these parts seem to take better care for their parents and grandparents as the NORM. They do things together and travel the path of life together.

This is OFF TOPIC -- but maybe not. We joined the throngs at the new Coen brothers movie on Saturday. We paid for it. But, you shouldn't. Don't bother to see "No Country for Old Men." This movie rated a "D" in our opinion -- although we seem to be in the minority among reviewers. Better to see something else, because this is a violent, distasteful, ordinary grind through a stupid story that has no real ending. It just stops. The photography is interesting. The music is neat. The acting is OK. But the story arc is a conundrum.

Respectfully,

Audio Al

[vickitulsa]

7. I hear ya, Al.

And thanks for the tip about the movie -- though your review is more like what I had figured it would be anyway. I always take into consideration that the reviewers these days embrace the mindless violence like it was some statement in and of itself and worthy of our time and attention.

I happen to believe that all the violence in our society is only exacerbated by those sorts of films, but I guess it's a chicken-or-egg sort of thing, really.

I don't have grandkids since my daughter was taken away from me back in 1969 when she was six weeks old, adopted and raised by a cousin and his wife -- who made sure I had no part in her life or contact of any kind. But I have great-nieces and nephews, and I worry about them all the time. My mom is in a group home now but back when she still had a memory, she used to say she didn't understand why people would bring children into this world anymore.

The other day I got on a bit of a rant on the phone to my one dearest friend about the sorry state of this country's culture and how "America deserves whatever she gets," but I was being particularly morbid about it that night. Seems harder all the time to "think positively" about our fate, though -- and this from me, the eternal optimist!

It's almost like everyone lives in his or her own cocoon these days, though, isn't it? Unless we make a concerted effort to remain connected to our families and friends, they seem to drift away and get lost to us. Such a sad state of affairs in our society, and surely not a positive change at all.

I began keeping a handwritten journal back in April of this year and have filled three small notebooks already. Just in case anyone cares to read my thoughts and ideas after I'm gone, though I doubt anyone will except that one friend in Wisconsin.

That guy spent 30 years in prison, virtually grew up there after being wrongly convicted of murder, then was finally released two years ago. He has been struggling to understand why his family and others out here in "the free world" don't seem to function as he thought they would, and his entire life revolves around a miserable job at a toxic workplace that he hates. I tried to warn him but it's just very hard to explain until one has lived in our culture and experienced it personally....

That general "malaise" that Jimmy Carter put his finger on decades ago seems to have mutated into something much more serious -- and quite possibly deadly, don't you think?

The way I see it, you know something's really wrong when older folks often say things like, "I'm just glad I won't be around that much longer," to experience what awaits us all in the future.

I appreciate your thoughts, Al, thanks for writing.

[Buns_of_Fire]

4. In 1969, I didn't trust anyone over 30. It's now 2007, and I STILL don't trust anyone over 30.

...and a few under-30-year-olds are on my Double Secret Probation list, too.

I love mankind; it's people I can't stand -- Linus

[Droopy]

5. It's a product of our society

Just by watching television you can see that we value youth and exuberance over age and wisdom. I don't think the problem has to do with the heavies- global warming and the war on terror. Most people just plain don't give a damn. I think it has more to do with the innate selfishness that our society ingrains in us from birth.

[vickitulsa]

8. Yep, selfishness at the heart of the matter is a theme.

I often refer to it myself and wonder how we got this way, but perhaps self-interest was always a prime mover in this country -- after the Europeans "invaded," at least.

We seem to have some truly ridiculous and romantic notions about the founding of our "great country" and those who organized to break away the colonies from the motherland(s). In spite of the grandiose claims in our seminal documents, I don't think this ever was a nation that was all about freedom and promise for each individual. Little wonder that even their best efforts created documents that have proven all too easy to subvert or ignore, I guess.

Still, the depth of self-interest and a thoroughgoing selfishness that seems to pass for the norm these days is surprising to me, and very discouraging. You hit a major nail smack on the head there.

[nashville_brook]

9. you've hit a question dear to me --

families are economic engines. extended families, with more participants, are stronger engines. when workers have the security of a strong local family unit, they are less beholden to the whim of their job.

in the last century, it was in the interest of big business that families separated, making the corporation the only means of support for vulnerable, "nuclear" families. this model is stale. with corporations participating LESS in a worker's overall security, it's NOT in anyone's interest to fritter away the value of people who can participate in a family's economic engine.

a strong, local extended family is a model of sustainability that is coming back into fashion as economic circumstances will increasingly demand. we can't "make it" alone, anymore. we need to pull together to share resources, labor and wisdom.

as to the musing at the end of your post -- rank and file citizens can't bear that burden. our leadership has failed us. it's not like we haven't been sounding the alarm since the late 60s on the effects of overpopulation and environmental destruction.

[The2ndWheel]

10. Well when you read about things that people like Ray Kurzweil talk about

there would be no need to worry or care about old people, because there won't be such a concept.

[krabigirl]

11. I think it's sad, too.

It sucks how we treat elderly people. Shove them in a nursing home, pump em full of painkillers. So freakin' sad. Their wisdom is not respected...it's just considered "out of date" and unimportant.

Still, I don't think I agree that nuclear families being separated is always a bad thing. Sometimes, separation is absolutely necessary if a family is go about life and raising their kids with dignity. If I had to live and raise my kids with my in-laws, who have continuously expressed their dislike of me, for example, depressed is all I'd be. Some elders don't respect their daughters or sons-in-law because they are of a different race, from a different country (like me), have a different (or no) religion, etc. So, there's no respect on either side in many situations. If I had to live with extended family all under one roof, I'd go insane! (I wish it wasn't this way, really, but it is the reality for many people.)