Credit: TED
…Because We’re All Gonna Get Old
In her TED Talk, Ashton Applewhite attempts to shatter myths and prejudices against society’s increasingly aging population.
Discrimination is built on a “hamster wheel of age denial,” a construct that makes getting older harder and prevents us from enjoying an essential process of life, Applewhite says.
Ageism is perhaps the most self-defeating of all isms since — if we do everything right —every last human being is destined to age. By 2050, nearly 2.1 billion people will be over the age of 60.
So what’s the purpose of discriminating against seniors when, in due time, we’re all guaranteed to be the target?
Applewhite approaches the subject from a powerful combination: passion and reason. In doing so, she offers an optimistic way forward.
“When we make the world a better place to grow old in, we make it a better place in which to be from somewhere else, to have a disability, to be queer, to be non-rich, to be non-white,” she explains. “And when we show up at all ages for whatever cause matters most to us—save the whales, save the democracy—we not only make that effort more effective, we dismantle ageism in the process.”
