Courtesy of wikipedia.org
A writer near my age admitted on Facebook that though she loved the feel of paper between her fingers and the smell of a new book, she’d shifted to an e-reader. No longer comfortable with small print, she needed an electronic device to adjust for size.
Much in life is a tradeoff. The earth has a polar wobble, which is natural, but growing more pronounced because humans are pulling quantities of water from the aquifer. Global construction is at an all-time high. That makes sand, a key ingredient in cement, a valuable commodity. The scarcer it becomes, the more illegal mining grows. Today, quarrying sand is a $200 billion to $300 billion industry, making it more valuable than gold, logging, and fishing combined.
Developments in technology may ameliorate some of these challenges. Reading devices that adjust print size is an example. Sometimes, though, the remedy poses new problems. Think of all those passwords we need to maintain our internet accounts.
A woman In my late 80s, I’d like to see the world slow down. Is there technology for that?
In his book, Successful Aging, Daniel J. Levitin warns that clinging to the past isn’t good for human health. Old folks should keep looking forward. That’s easy for him to say. He’s not at the end of the line trying to keep up.
On the plus side, Levitin writes that old folks have an edge over the young. Wisdom enables them to make good decisions. They’ve lived long enough to discern patterns in nature and human behavior. A newborn may cry, terrified by its first glimpse of the sun, but adults head for the beach hoping for enough sand to throw down a towel.
Lacking experience, young people’s judgments are prone to err. Many, for example, criticize Joe Biden’s slow response to the tragedy unfolding in Gaza. As the head of a powerful country, they presume he has levers to pull to affect change. Yet not since Teddy Roosevelt’s interventions in Latin America during the 1900s has an American President imagined he could interfere with another nation’s sovereignty and escape paying a political price–the incursions being short-lived or ending in failure.
The heady era of being a dominant player among weaker countries is history. Today, democratic nations exercise diplomacy rather than brute force. Biden has an edge on that score. He knows the world players, the genesis of foreign quarrels, and the cards each country’s leader is likely to hold.
True, he hasn’t sold Benjamin Netanyahu on a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. But Netanyahu isn’t thinking about the future. An unpopular figure in his country, he clings to power because of the war, holding fast to it the way a man lost at sea clings to an ice float even though it’s melting.
Youth may see Biden’s politics in the current conflict as uncaring, but their viewpoint may be too simple. The suffering in Gaza is unconscionable, agreed. But, so far, Biden has kept our alliances intact in the Middle East; held Iran at bay; secured world trade by monitoring the Suez Canal, and made talks about a two-state solution credible. Not bad for a man forced to dance with wolves.
In a bad world, only a fool looks for rainbows. Hal Brands in an edition of Foreign Affairs argues that given the current morality, “…the only way to protect a world fit for freedom is to court impure partners and engage in impure acts.” (“The Age of Amorality,” by Hal Brands, Foreign Affairs March/April, pg. 106.)
Brands’ advice may be repugnant to young minds and old ones as well, but the difference between youth and age is that the latter is more pragmatic. Older people know that facing reality doesn’t mean giving up ideals. It means they may see taking a step backward as a prelude to moving forward.
Nothing I’ve written diminishes the contributions young people make in the world. Innovation flows from their plastic brains the way stars burst from a supernova. I doubt an 80-something could have invented Bitcoin. Because our complex problems require complex responses, neither youth nor age should be banished from the stage. We achieve more when we make room for each other.
Gloria Steinem turns 90 this month. After the loss of Roe v. Wade, she hasn’t given up on women’s rights. When a fan asked if she was planning to toss her torch to someone else, her reply was unequivocal. “I’m holding on to my torch. I’ll let other people light theirs from mine.” (Successful Aging, by Daniel J. Levitin, Random House, 2020, (large print edition by Penguin) pg. 662.)
Happy Birthday, Gloria!
