Ageing and Disabilities: Cultural Aspects in Carrasco de Paula I, Pegoraro R (Eds.). Ageing and Disability. Pontifical Academy for Life: Vatican City; 2014

Ageing and Disabilities: Cultural Aspects

A Prolonged Human Existence Today, ageing is as a multi-faceted argument which has social, cultural, economic and clinical implications.1 By some strange paradox,

age, that is looked upon more as a problem rather than an achievement worthy of pride. Indeed, ageing exacerbates an increase in economic, social and relational problems, each connected to an increase in the phenomenon of “chronicity”, all of which we are largely unprepared to face. It is best expressed by the oxymoron old age is a new age. It is a new phase of life, one which brings new problems, even though for centuries it has only been a marginal reality. The recent notion of disability philosophical nature2 do if we are called to assume the responsibility of not censuring this time of life. This holds true even if it is immediately clear to us that it would be an error to include old age as such within the context of disability. In the first place, it must be pointed out that in present day circumstances, the notion of disability indicates neither the illness nor the person, rather the relationship between the state of health of an individual and the environment in which he or she lives. One’s environment can either facilitate or impede the life of an individual. In this sense, it can be said that disability reveals the historical and social condition of human existence challenged by illness and impairment. In particular, the notion of disability allows us to understand to what

Full Professor of Bioethics, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan (Italy). 1

Comitato Nazionale per la Bioetica,

(20 January 2006) and

sanitaria (16 July 2010). 2

(ed.),

(Vita e Pensiero: Milan, 2010).

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extent cultural stigma can become an element of discrimination and

sense of existence as well as the sense of the extensive duration of reliance on others and lack of suicide or euthanasia, yet we must remember that it is precisely the

Identity Unraveled The identity of the self depends to a large extent on the images that man inherits or assimilates from the society in which he or she lives. The duration of one’s existence, from childhood to old age, is certainly perceived and lived according to the roles and social functions that are relevant to each season or chapter. From this perspective, then, one outside of the period of retirement and therefore deprived of many of the social

margin and certainly render those classical images that place the aged at the height of wisdom and authority in the family and the polis in crisis. In this period of history in which knowledge is no longer associated with experience acquired over the years, instead it is determined by the rapidity in the process of learning and innovative transformation, so whatever pertains to the lived “memory” of the elderly becomes synonymous of what is now obsolete and in fact thought of as something totally unrelated to progress dynamics. This leads us to an

a technological society to be “useless”. In essence, the digital memory of the internet is the perfect surrogate for memories and stories that for centuries were instead an instrument of local and familial

a descriptive connotation, but furthermore expresses a concern and negative evaluation. In the prevailing cultural model wherein one is pressed to think “the best” as being in the horizons of the future and 36

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Ageing and Disabilities: Cultural Aspects

tomorrow, that which is old is futureless and no longer has the authority the past. In liberal economics, the exponential increase of consumption and production leaves no room for the idea of any progress that is not

as a burden, or as a cost, as if there were a “debt” with the past to

be talking about its own future as well, for in the history of the living it is precisely the future that implicates the fact that there will be an aged population: a future without old age is, indeed, not a future at all, only a present. For this reason, the question of old age is decisive for any society that projects itself into the future. In the historical periods and “static” societies in which mortality and birth rates show a certain circularity at a relatively brief distance, old age is an event naturally accepted without particular problematicity. that have cleared a path for these new neologisms that speak of the aged but not of the old, and which furthermore rely on notions like those of the third and fourth stages of life, we can nonetheless easily ascertain that, already in the twentieth century ageing has become the object of multiple studies and approaches, all of a medical, sociological, psychological and functional nature, and has inspired cultural studies. Nevertheless, old age has never

3

of this existential condition.4 Yet this has not happened by chance. At the basis of this development one can say, using the words of Simone de Beauvoir, that even today old age is largely “censured”,5

3

(Bollati Boringhieri: Turin, 2013).

4

5 La vieillesse, Simone de Beauvoir writes, “To the rest of society old age seems like a kind of secret shame, of which is does no good to speak.” Proust speaks of a metamorphosis, that we refuse to place ourselves in direct contact with, or consider the prospect of, our existence. On this topic, see also A. Pessina, “Un tempo nuovo per la vecchiaia,” in (Vita e Pensiero:

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and is frequently even a self-inflicted censure in that it becomes something practiced on oneself, so to speak, when one considers his or yet fully articulated a clear idea of how old age should be, how this period is proper to man. Indeed, when old age is not perceived as a problem hedonistic and consumerist paradigms that use old age to further the

physical body as well as its various functions, a particularly identitarian factor in women. Today one flees from old age by attempting to “sculpt” one’s body, refusing to accept the end of fertility resorting to

which over time has lost its connotation of father (and therefore also grandfather), an old man still in good health is urged to live “a youthful adventure”, feigning exemption from this category. Hence, when enduring less than good health or chronic illness, old age is today increasingly inundated the prolongation of life, questions that, emerging from extreme and objectively problematic situations, tend to stir up suspicion that in the is “bound to die”. It is precisely in relation to the use of technology in the medical cases of senior citizens that one encounters the question of the proportionality of care that should be considered for all ages but here it assumes more of a renunciatory will. It is not possible to further develop this here, we must rather limit ourselves to show how old age is either interpreted according the problems related to conditions of health and chronicity or it is not given of the “youthful”. The fashionable manner of being or feeling young (expressed well in the accommodating phrase “You don’t look your age!”) thus articulates the conviction that there is nothing to be loved in old age, nothing per se

generally means not being oneself. In an age marked by a mythological elevation of autonomy and independence, any historical situation that reveals a dimension of caducity (our original contingency) and reliance 38

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on others, that is, the truth about the human being ends up being socially and culturally destabilising. This is seen with disability in general and especially with senile disability. Essentially, in the censuring of old age as a proper stage of life and one of the seasons of existence, what emerges human condition. Historicity in fact asks the question of the hierarchy of fundamental values that all those existing are called to establish, and how old age imposes the necessity of revisiting prioritised values that govern youth and adulthood in a manner that cannot be arbitrary.6 It is in this framework, that the relationship between generations is situated; it cannot and must not be considered as a “pact”, unless one has already fallen into the ideological trap which presupposes a war between generations.

Morality as a “Cultural Environment” and Its Languages

is the relation between environment and the health of the mind and body, then the obstacles which in old age increase disability risk is due all phases of human existence. Here we are not only dealing with descriptions: it is necessary to develop deontological perspectives that propose themes related to the responsibility of society with respect to the aged and the way in which old age must be regarded by mankind that does not want to censure it or disguise it along false lines proper to other seasons of life. custody of the value of the human person as an integration and further deepening of the notion of assistance. The ethics of care, developed along the ideas of valorising personal interdependence, above all requires rethinking which are surrogates for the familial environment with the delegation to some degree falsely ascetic, form of quiet social segregation. From the perspective of disability, the elderly are subject to a two-fold possible and is considered above all as a cost and a burden on society, and 6

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(Vita e Pensiero, 2003).

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secondly that which regards old age as a period of time void of all hope and without future, and therefore a period which is senseless to live out. In recent years, the vindication of the presumed right to euthanasia and assisted suicide has been gaining momentum, which, through the language of ethics of pure autonomy, has frequently led ageing persons

closer to death than the young, for this consideration, as already noted 7

no one while he is alive knows when he will die. It is quite true that when faced with the memory of one’s long past, one asks with greater urgency the precise question of how to live while still maintaining the sense of existential fullness of planning and hope. This accompanied by of

to that of decline. On the one hand, it seems that man is called to happiness as

end of one’s working life. Here, too, we see the sense of uselessness and search for entertainment as the pursuit of a distraction from the thought of death and decline. The original constitution of the self is in fact the sphere in which one experiences his contingency and caducity. Decline would seem to indicate how the very hope of happiness is illusory and how possible. If one considers the formulation of the dialectic between

accomplishment decline and therefore the perception that it is no longer worth the trouble to continue to live. Of

7

La morte

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than cause for such desperation. Nevertheless, another interpretation of express with greater profundity the truth of the human condition and challenge the language of ageing that today is more and more restricted by a pervasive perspective of the immanent. Firstly, past life. successes and failures. It does not simply mark the end of a process,

unfolded without the fear of losing oneself or being dissipated, since the person is in the condition to make a synthesis of his or her own life.

the spiritual unity of the person discovers in old age an existential centre no longer naïve, energy that opens him to the experience of physical centre, I do not only mean to discuss the strictly religious dimension of life, something I will discuss in a moment, rather I intend to highlight the capacity to transcend contingency present in any great search for the truth, for justice, and beauty.8 During the time of old age, the subject

deploy and bring into play his or her own personal identity that is now complete. He who is incapable of coming to terms with his own age and the necessary change in responsibility that it bears, and does not know how to existentially and psychologically emancipate himself from set roles and functions of adult working life, lives instead within the loss of identity and demonstrates his not having known how to actualise that hierarchical redistribution of good and values required of him so as not to lose himself in a wave of regret. some stand-in activity that recreates or mimics the activity proper to and expanding that silent dialogue with oneself that permits man to take open to the truth of existence. This undertaking is in some sense

8

Etica (Morcelliana: Brescia,

2001).

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prophetic in that it indicates to all that the truth of the human condition requires of man not to lose himself or be dissipated in what he does. The apparent inactivity of old age indicates, at its core, the identifying term to which all personal and relational endeavors must aspire. Dialogue between the generations is rendered fruitful and innovative only when the existential modes by which youths, adults and the aged Human relations do not undergo deterioration only when in being together generations are not made to level out in a single existential and cultural dimension. If one escapes from the “normativity” of youthfulness, consequently the censorship of old age loses its momentum. One might object that in these brief comments there is no mention of death, nor any reference to a preparation for death that usually seems to connote the time of old age. There are at least two reasons old age as a time for preparing for death is in structure very equivocal in that, as has been said, there is no such thing as a pure and proper preparation for death. An individual might practice and make himself ready for future events that can be expected in life, but death is the which no one can ever be fully prepared. The second reason is provided by the fact that the authentic meaning of preparation for death, the authentic meaning of preparation for tied to the religious and philosophical tradition that speaks of the sum, here we are dealing with perspectives that are still gathered at the prime of life, inasmuch as it has a future and is transformed by death itself. But in our own day, an epoch that cultivates the so-called “right to die”, imposes censures on a daily basis on any reference to eternal life, even though in reality this is the basis of every contingent life and its authentic meaning. The phase of old age, that of illness and the process of dying, are nonetheless times “of life”, and as such are to be lived and positioned 10

Communio 233 (July-August 2012): 24-33. 10

On Feeling Knowing, and Valuing.

Selected Writings.

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spoke, alluding to the positive faith in the goodness of existence that allows him to say, along with Hannah Arendt, that man is always a “pro-life being” and is never on the side of death.11 each time one feels loved, welcomed and understood. In this experience, plunging into the “emptiness” of uselessness. For this reason, human relations that accompany persons even in times of dehabilitation, loss of psychological identity and nearness to death are always decisive. From this point of view, we cannot remain silent when faced with the fact that our society seems to ignore or censure the actual contribution made by Christian faith, which provides a profound understanding of the intrinsic value of individual existence, frequently referred to as dignity. The ultimate basis for this rests in the faithfulness of God to Logos of claims and expectations that other human beings might place on him. To better speak of this certainty, it is necessary to return to

not concern the beginning of the world, rather the foundation of every one would therefore understand how from the very moment of coming into the world there is proclamation of the promise of God’s faithfulness reason, is seen as a new birth. however, an evangelical passage which synthesises the prophetic nexus that solders birth, old age and death in the horizons of hope. I am referring to the moment when Simeon in his old age and cradling the infant Jesus in his arms, exclaims “Lord, your servant is ready to leave in peace according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, a way prepared for all peoples, a light for all mankind.” By welcoming and protecting nascent life there is elucidated, within a single horizon of hope, the very sense of old age as a period still capable of wonderment at the newness, and the beauty of existence.12

11

by Hannah Arendt, and its social repercussions, see A. Papa, Nati per incominciare. Vita e politica in Hannah Arendt (Vita e Pensiero: Milan, 2011). 12 Un tempo nuovo per la vecchiaia, op. cit., p. 55-56.

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to take care of oneself and caring for others are historical signs of the faithfulness of God, something we experience in the practices of love and justice in the human community. Yet all this does not happen automatically and should not be interpreted as a consolatory admonition, rather as due commitment and responsibility. For a society that does not want to transform its own future, and realise the possibility of growing old, and as such become a burden and malediction, there must be re-establishment of its values and an escape from the ordering of existence tied only to the logic of liberal individualism and the economy that fuels it. For this reason, the questions of old age and disability, even senility, are explicitly relevant to questions of justice. In a certain sense, we can embrace the idea that criticism, a prophetic warning to ensure that the young and adults do not miss the opportunity of building, a future worthy of man, and indeed of themselves.

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