(Those who do not age with beauty age with shame)
After the motivation trade, one of the most profitable areas in the world for the last 20 years is living healthily, and the other is not aging or staying young. There is a great demand in the fields of nutrition, physical exercise and surgery to meet this demand. The determination of Dr. Manuel Serraso from the Spanish Oncological Research Center is very direct, clear and ruthless. “Nothing gets better biologically after the age of thirty”. Whether we accept it or not, the price of living is aging and everyone is aware of the negative effects of age on the body and this does not make anyone happy.
Surgical and cosmetic interventions, which were only accessible to wealthy people in the past, have now become a search that urbanites below the middle income level are also turning to. In the race to grab a share of the billion-dollar industry that has emerged to reverse the course of nature, detox farms and antioxidant cure programs, which have been proven by research to only weaken the wallet, are trying to attract not only the elderly but also people of all ages with unrealistic promises. In this caravan, there is the multivitamin and nutritional supplement industry, which has no other function than producing expensive urine, and of course, the cosmetics industry, which should not be forgotten. There are two sectors that do not have to prove anything to their customers and do not have any responsibility: The first is the vitamin and nutritional supplement industry, and the second is the cosmetics industry. I believe that no one has ever made a request to these institutions claiming that the vitamins they take or the rejuvenating creams they use do not make them beautiful or young.
People have three attitudes towards aging. The first is to experience the feeling of looking young by denying it, in a sense, by undergoing interventions such as surgery, botox, or by dressing like a young person. The second is to see aging as a tragic disease and tragedy and to withdraw from life. The third is to age healthily and well, living up to your age.
Becca Levy from Yale University’s Department of Public Health reported that people’s perception of old age affects life expectancy. In her research, Levy suggested that those with a positive approach to old age lived seven years longer than those with a negative perception. Among Levy’s findings was that having a positive perception of old age also had an effect on quality of life; those who accepted old age and the aging process enjoyed their mental and physical health more. One of the findings of this research was that activating positive preconceptions about old age, such as wisdom, improved memory in older people, compared to activating negative preconceptions, such as dementia (1).
A culture’s perspective on old age naturally affects the people living in that culture. While American culture has a negative perception of old age, Turkish culture, influenced by Central Asian and Ottoman traditions, is a culture that approaches the elderly with respect and values the wisdom that comes with age.
My aim is not to praise old age, but it should be kept in mind that old age provides certain advantages, such as mental and emotional maturity, that are difficult to attain in youth. With advancing age, the sharp edges of the personality are smoothed out and as a result, people become more cautious, their ambitions decrease, and their compromising qualities become more prevalent. This makes them more agreeable and more harmonious. On the other hand, those who develop a negative perception of old age engage in a struggle that they cannot win as their youth is left behind. This struggle is aimed at trying to look young on the one hand, and at fighting with the young and showing that they are better than them on the other. The result of these efforts, as can be expected, is inevitably unhappiness, sadness and depression.
One of the most important difficulties experienced between generations today is the obstacle created by technology. It is thought that technological knowledge means knowing everything and having all the answers. As a result, young people believe that their predisposition to technology gives them a natural and irreplaceable superiority and ignore the chance to benefit from the wisdom of previous generations.
Devalues old age
Today, there is a historical change that is destroying the continuity between generations and a historical process that is erasing the past as it progresses. One of the sad aspects of the period we live in is that people’s memories have dulled and they believe that the lives of the two previous generations were spent in stone age conditions. The speed of change seems to have erased the understanding of the continuity of history from people’s memories. This situation is especially valid for the young generations. However, it should not be concluded that the young are responsible. Because the real reason is not the speed of change but the changing character of society with urbanization. However, most young people do not know recent history and do not think that it is important, and in a sense they think that history started with them.
Instead of seeing themselves as a part of the continuity between generations and society, the individual has come to a position where they care too much about themselves. In an environment where buying and enjoying life have become acts of worship, the understanding of “here and now” directs lives. According to historian Eric Hobsbawm, there were mechanisms that connected the young generations to the old generations in the past. French historian Marc Bloch says, “In agricultural societies, knowledge was transmitted from one generation to the next.” While parents worked in the fields, grandparents would look after and talk to the children. In this way, children would witness their own history. This situation has been shattered today for many reasons. As a result, the younger generations do not see the past as important and the only past that the young people know is their own personal past. Thus, Oscar Wilde’s words “youth is the time when people are young and waste it” have become a divine prophecy in a sense. Considering that the world’s population is aging and working life is getting longer, it is necessary and appropriate for the emphasis to be shifted to the young in management positions. However, if the young people have mature people around them who they can benefit from their past experiences and consult with, creating synergy, this increases management performance.
Conclusion
Both living long and not aging is an impossible dream. As Bette Davis said, “Aging is not for cowards,” and as we stated in the title, those who do not age beautifully age in shame.
Source:
Levy, B. R., Ferrucci, L., Zonderman, A. B.; Slade, M. D., Troncoso, J., & Resnick, S. M. (2016). A culture–brain link: Negative age stereotypes predict Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers. Psychology and Aging, 31, 82-88.
(*) This article was excerpted with minor changes from the book “Hayatın Hakkını Vermek” (Living Healthy, Long and Well), published by Doğan Publications.
