The Story of Old Age

KOMPAS/MOHAMMAD HILMI FAIQ

Idi Subandy Ibrahim

Everyone will go through old age in their lives, except those who die early. However, most people don’t know what will happen to them in the remaining days of their lives. Therefore, everyone feels the need to prepare for old age.

For optimistic people, old age is considered the fruit of what they had nurtured when they were young. This view, however, ignores the fact that each person treads a different social and cultural path. Old age is not always beautiful for everyone, as people go through stages of their lives individually. Some are fortunate and others are less fortunate. Some are rich, some are mediocre, and still others are poor. Some receive a large pension payment, some receive the normal rate, while others receive nothing at all. Some are healthy, some are ill.

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These are among the things that Paul Cann and Malcolm Dean cover in Unequal Aging: The Untold Story of Exclusion in Old Age (2009).

In the language of political policy and political economy, old age is often referred to as “elderly” (old people) and “senior” (older people), and sometimes “infirm” (jompo). The language is a label that establishes awareness about what it means to be old in society and culture. Old age is often only seen as a statistical, numerical, and age group category to accommodate government’s assistance and intervention policies. Finding a quantitative solution to the issue that uses figures with an economical dimension can result in the absence of the human dimension.

Elderly without potential are old people who are no longer able to earn a living and dependent on others.

This is clearly seen in the product of our Constitution, for example, in which old age is linked with age and productivity. According to Law No. 13/1998, an "elderly" person is someone who has reached the age of 60 years or above. “Potential elderly” are people who can still work and/or do activities that produce goods and/or services.

Elderly without potential are old people who are no longer able to earn a living and dependent on others.

It is a certain reality for those who have experienced it and an uncertain reality for those who have not. Old age is like a field full of both anxiety and hope for each human being. If anxiety is the picture of human vulnerability, hope is the picture of human strength. Hope can turn into anxiety when old age is seen as merely a personal matter and not a major issue, for example, what the government will do when people in the old age category experience marginalization and social exclusion.

The beginning of the 21st century saw a dramatic increase in the number of elderly people (above 60 or 65) in a number of countries around the world, with the elderly population accounting from a quarter to one-fifth of the population in many countries. In fact, the figure has reached 1 billion elderly people worldwide. Improvements to the economic welfare and health have partly contributed to improvements in life expectancy, which has occurred not only in developed countries, but also developing countries.

The growing number of elderly people poses a challenge for many countries, including Indonesia, such as how to empower the elderly and make them feel independent, useful, and valuable to society, and not be a barrier to generational transfer for younger people in various aspects of life, such as company positions and professional fields. They should not become guardians of cultural feudalism and conservatism that prevents young people from moving forward.

The challenge is huge in how to fulfill their economic, social, and health needs on the one hand, and on the other, how to provide space for the cultural and psychological needs of age groups that have been lopped together as the "post-productive generations", although not a few of them, because of certain conditions and professions, can still continue to be productive even if they are over 60 or 65 years old.

Dehumanization

Old age is rarely seen as a cultural category, so the human dimension of old age often goes unnoticed. For the upper middle class, old age has long been identified with the “memory” industry or business, such as leisure travel, exclusive communities, or writing memoirs or biographies to perpetuate the past. For the lower middle class, old age is the target of the “anxiety” industry that promises uncertain guarantees for their old age, like the insurance industry, which is excited only when it comes to collecting premium payments, but reluctant in responding to customer complaints.

Long before the Covid-19 pandemic, old age had become synonymous with the story of growth cultural industry. On the one hand, old age has long been commodified in lifestyles, drug advertisements, and death insurance that target the elderly. On the other hand, their psychological state continues to be attacked with the charm of "youth" as the prima donna in the public sphere and the establishment of the popular culture industry. Lifestyles that rely on handsome and beautiful faces have become the criteria for success in the entertainment and gossip industries, as well as talk shows on TV and YouTube.

In its various visible forms, the dehumanization of older people still takes place in the public sphere. Experts in critical architecture call it an urban culture that harms stories of the old days. “Gardens for the elderly” and walking paths for older people have emerged in some cities, but the architecture of roads, cities, and urban spaces is not yet friendly to them.

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Public transportation facilities and spatial planning have not provided a special, elderly-friendly space. In the culture of queuing, an awareness to respect their elders through their behavior has not been ingrained in our children.

Not surprisingly, the older people are, the lower their position in the social strata and the more symptoms of alienation and loneliness they experience. They are isolated not only in the midst of poverty, but also in the abundance of wealth.

It is like the lonely tale of a super successful person who lives alone in a luxurious house with various amenities and a collection of super luxury vehicles. However, in the remainder of his aging days, he is unable to hold back his tears over regret. He remembers haggling over the price of banana fritters with an elderly street vendor when he was young. "Why did I do that?" he asks himself.

It seems the story of old age also illustrates how anxiety and regret still remains, even though the so-called hope is already in someone else\'s hands.

IDI SUBANDY IBRAHIM is a culture, media and communication researcher.

This article was translated by Hendarsyah Tarmizi.