The 21st Century Should Carry a Cult of Living

“Quel age?  Jeune!”

Our Society Lives a Cult of Youth.

Everyone is trying to conform to the societal love affair with youth, which we have made synonym for performance, dynamism, attractiveness, potency, fun.   In this societal myth we’re living, youthfulness is considered a sign of an accomplished individual whereas old age, which was once equated with wisdom and maturity, is now associated with conservatism, stagnation, or obsolescence.  Age and aging seem to be something to fear and dread. 

To slow this fate, we are giving into looking and pretending to be younger.  Sort of like “blonds have more fun”, we seem to believe the Young Have More Fun, are more attractive within our performance society, more successful within our media age.

 “Things are happening so much younger these days – 19 year olds start companies like Facebook - 26 doesn’t feel like a spring chicken anymore so there’s pressure not to show your age even when you’re still pretty young” – states a 26 year old woman who is a regular Botox user.

And so, many are developing a coping strategy to remain performing in this context, using our affluence and scientific /medical advances to help every age be a happy youth. 

-      The general backdrop is that we’re getting closer to beating out our mortality.  Scientists are predicting that we will be able to prolong our lifespan.  Michael Rose, professor of evolutionary biology at the University of California at Irvine predicts that the human longing for immortality may be partly satisfied by the 22^nd century, at least to the point of extending the average human life to 140 years.  Others say that absolute immortality may be possible by then thanks to full-body regeneration or organ replacement which may be within reach.  It’s an on-going debate that includes whether or not to qualify aging as a disease in order to gain more funding.  Most medical scientists believe that advances should be used first and foremost to improve the quality of life of people who suffer from particular diseases or degenerative conditions but some, such as Rose, believe that early use of some methods / substances in a person’s life would prevent wear and tear, as well as lengthen life and improve its quality. 

-      Many medical academies and institutions are proponing usage and exhibiting impressive results, notably Dr. Jeffry Life, now 72, who uses testosterone and human growth hormones on himself and on his patients, and who stands as a poster boy of how we can all fight age and aging.

-       In light of all this Possibility, individuals are wanting to age on their own terms… and are turning to anti-age products and procedures to beat out age as best they can.  A lifegoesstrong.com poll found that 1 out of 5 boomers either have had or would consider cosmetic surgery.   Anti-aging product market in the US already represented about $80 billion in 2008 and is forecasted to reach over $291.9 billion worldwide by 2015.  Growing numbers of middle-aged people pay over 15K$ per year for Human Growth Hormone injections.  The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) states that there were 13.1 million cosmetic plastic surgery procedures performed in the US in 2010, a 77% increase over a decade and which does not include cosmetic medicine, which is also on a sharp increase (procedures like Botox and wrinkle fillers are up 99% since 2000, according to the ASPS). 

-      Thanks to the increasing accessibility to these strategies, increasingly younger individuals are pulled into the anti-aging game. The average age of going in for a first face lift has gone from 50 (in the 1990s) to 42 in 2000 in France… and today in the US, the average age starts at 45.  Even young people are obsessed by it and turning to Botox in their 20s as a way to ward off future wrinkles- reportedly, many don’t have lines when they go in to get injections.  Botox has become the most popular cosmetic procedure for female patients ages 19 to 35, with nearly 400,000 wrinkle-reversing (or preventing) treatments in 2007.  In 2010, over 78,000 people in the US in their 20s received Botox in the US, up 11% vs. 2009 according to the ASPS. “I don’t want to look like my mother,” they say.  Note that these figures do not include procedures performed outside of the country. 

-      And this fervor is growing despite questionable efficiency.  National Institute on Aging states, “our culture places great value on staying young, but aging is normal… Despite claims about pills or treatments that lead to endless youth, no treatments have been proven to slow or reverse the aging process.”  Furthermore, many of the products aren’t required to be tested or reviewed by independent or governmental commissions.   Some hormone replacement drugs can have harmful side effects.  

So What?  Why not leave people their liberty to choose what they do with their money?  

The problem is that for these rather limited gains, there are some unintended consequences that are a far heavier price to pay for society at large. 

As more and more jump on the bandwagon, we are, as a society, creating a new norm that makes aging shameful… and which allows for little alternative than to give into anti-aging.  According to some studies, the goal is no longer to simply look good for her age but to not age at all. 

“J’aurais peut-être accepté de vieillir, sans cette pression” – Maybe I would have accepted aging... if it weren’t for all this pressure.

As with all norms, the mechanism is self-reinforcing, spreading via peer-pressure not only because it is creating a new standard by which everyone must live to “fit in” socially but by which once one has done it, I’ve been told, thus begins the constant attack within the social circle on others’ wrinkles in order to somehow confirm the first person’s decision (or make everyone look just as awful…)

Because of this, Seniors, and senior women in particular, are losing their place in society.  As has remarked Germaine Greer, men with grey hair gain in status whereas women with grey hair lose it.  To be desired, loved, accepted, many feel they practically have to change themselves into someone else!  Further, this Cult of Youth isn’t only about seniors, it’s also about adulthood in general and our societal focus on its aspects that aren’t… “fun”.

In this 21^st century, it is time for us to move beyond our Cult of Youth to a Cult of Living.

Our current age-boycotting strategies are unsustainable (except for the pharmaceutical companies and surgeons who are enjoying the profits). 

But beyond that, many of our strategies for living the Cult of Youth may be actually counterproductive, our goals somewhat askew, and our fears somewhat unwarranted. 

Today I will tackle the first aspect (that our strategies may be counterproductive) and leave the remaining 2 until next week in order to keep this entry a reasonable length.

1.  Many of our strategies to appear younger are contradictory to the realities of being younger.

For starters, let’s consider Botox.  Is it anti-age… or rather anti-youth? 
Botulinum toxin reduces wrinkles by temporarily paralyzing small muscles in the face.   So, to look younger, we’re freezing ourselves up.  That directly undermines our quest for appearing young.  After all, youthfulness is usually identified by the opposite: fluidity, spontaneity, facility, graceful/easy movements, etc.  As we are freeze up our faces, we’re pushing ourselves directly towards what we’re fleeing.

Second, paralyzing the small muscles prevents the individual from making various expressions that convey emotion.  And, to quote an article heard on NPR, our own facial expressions, researchers now show, may be essential to recognizing the feelings of others… in other words, it hampers our ability to interact relationally with others.  So, to feel more included, greater belonging, and desirability, we’re impeding our ability to build relationships and/or seduce.

Third, as I already mentioned, the fall-out of this normalization of anti-age is ostracism … all in the name of belonging so important to us, social animals that we are.

This isn’t to belittle the impetus for trying out anti-age products or procedures which often a desire to reclaim one’s own life and conquer the frustration due to a gap between “how I feel” with “how I look” and the individual’s desire to “look the way I feel” despite his or her age.  Unfortunately, from botox to facelifts, often anti-age procedures don’t really enable you to be recognized for who you are (often the effects do little to bring back how we used to be and, at times, may even worsen our appearance / make us look even more different from ourselves than we looked as our own aged self).  Worse, they may have you recognized for something else entirely (perhaps vain or superficial), according to some studies.

But it goes deeper than that.   The superposition of “appearing” and “being” can lead to further unintended consequences.   (Granted, in our performance society, in which our projected identity has taken on great importance, the difference between appearance and being has been blurred;  against very real discriminations aging people are facing, “appearance” can be an unavoidable asset.)

All the same, as long as we focus on appearing young to others, we’re wasting energy that could be better spent on being and living younger.  Not for others but for our own well-being (which is a much better recipe for inclusion and social acceptance).  It comes from our daily attitude and activities that we remain / reap the benefits of being young.  Unfortunately, it won’t come from trying to freeze time or denying ourselves all that we are becoming. 

Indeed, staying oneself should include one’s potential, who one becomes, and the experience acquired along the way rather than sacrificing the life-imperative of evolution to trying to convince others of a youthfulness others rarely believe.

In fact, it all comes back to self-hood and a conviction of one’s self-worth. 

With it, we can delve into our own unique resources and richness, into the aspects that are our own and source of meaningful relationships and exchange.  Without it, we catalyze its impoverishment, condemning us all (individually and collectively) to lose out on what age and aging can offer…  plus exacerbating the unnecessary competition for the same role from all ages (I’ll treat this further in next week’s publication).

Aged people possess precious assets to contribute: experience, perspective, wisdom that are gained and refined thanks to aging (see Laura Carstensen’s TED Talk).  As a society, we must revalue all the positive aspects that age has to contribute to both our individual and collective well-being and progress.  Already in my lastblog, I advocated allowing seniors to continue to work at a rhythm more in tune with both the physical realities of aging/burn-out and the intellectual/emotional value accrued with aging.   This idea can be prolonged to putting in place opportunities to break down the linearity of our generations.  Intergenerational activities would be enriching for everybody – not just children and seniors but young adults and adults who would also benefit from this type of interaction and exchange.  It could be conducted based on theme-affinity, using hobbies and/or school curricula as easy conduits to exchange (and which remain public so as to avoid any type of abuse).  This type of exchange can help aged people be and feel young as well as give sharper contours to their daily lives, a benefit that may have its value in pushing back certain diseases like Alzheimer’s.  Meanwhile, it provides children, youths, and adults a larger pool of mentors and/or role models as well as broader and more diversified perspective.  It would be a great means for liberating our society from its narrow cult of youth and help it open up to youthful living.

Let me know what you think and stay tuned for next week on the other passages to a Cult of Living.

Till then, for another bite from the apple,

Eve