OLDER PEOPLE TREATED BADLY IN THE WEST ______________________________________________ One might ask, why are older people treated so badly in the West? The question has far-reaching consequences and much could be written on the subject. Older people are sometimes called Elders. However, another name for older people is 'the elderly'. This may or may not derive from the original word. Elders (capital 'E') are people who, in many cultures throughout humanity, are given a particular status for their wisdom and experience and are accordingly well-looked after. This is still true for many cultures but not, seemingly in the West. Elders as such have been denigrated to 'the elderly', most often a form of abuse meaning that older people are 'old' and therefore have no further value than younger counterparts. Therefore, the elderly as more a nuisance than a plethora of said wisdom and experience. The question is: why is this? I am tempted to believe that it is because of what we perceive as the 'civilisation' of Man. The more Man perceives himself to be 'civilised' through what he believes is a better understanding of the world about him (and one he has created from the earth), the less the value of the knowledge and experience of the elders, who are driven by survival to a closer deal with Nature, the earth. The so-called 'civilised' world does not tend towards survival, almost just the opposite. An earth that supports creatures (and everyone in their society) and who live close to it, are certainly survival-based. Survival is anathema to Western cultures; therefore the elderly are becoming more of a hindrance to the fake world we find ourselves in, whether we like it or not. Children love to ask questions, about everything. Without input from older people, how are they ever going to learn, especially survival? Text-book learning (written by data-benders) is a fruitless exercise unless real people can have an input. This is the way the planet is going in the West, goodness forbid! It is high time to resurrect the older living rather than the dead myths upon which the World is based. It is high time to remove the stagnant layer of the algae of non-existent myths and legends (except for reference and a good laugh) from the pond of life as it should be lived. We must value our older people. The nuclear family has all but disappeared and we are left with a vacuous, zombie society intent only on hedonism and materialism; an arm-chair view of the world in which reality is virtual and mindless garbage.

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