Average life expectancy in France has increased by 30% in the last three decades. More than 15 million people have already passed the age of 60. And by 2050, five million women will be in their nineties. But no one wants to see these facts. Worse still, this aging of the population is interpreted as a curse, a collective catastrophe.
“Wrinkled”, “mildew”, “sick”: these are qualifiers high school students use to express what old age awakens in them. But after a few conversations with Laure Adler, the matter develops. “Because they can understand that people much older than themselves can help them,” the journalist says. They can tell them what they can’t tell their parents. We started from the very negative to get to the super positive! A way of thinking that Laure Adler would like to observe more often in a France that practices the “racism of the age.”
“When you’re young, you don’t think you’re going to get old one day,” he continues. Very special social patterns have been instilled in us. Just watch commercials or TV: they teach you that old people are useless, stink, stingy. The less you see them, the better off you are, as if extreme youth were some kind of happy living mantra. But this is wrong. According to the philosopher Edgar Morin, Laure Adler questioned the elders to prove this, because “the word senior is above all to soften a great calamity”. And furthering his research into nursing homes where helpfulness is essential and staff are trained on the sexuality of the elderly. “We have a body, we have desires, and we have a thirst for existence”.
Revolt of the Elders: Wednesday, February 15th, 22:55, France 2
AMANDINE SCHERER
Source: Programme Television
Joseph Fearn is an entertainment and television aficionado who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a keen eye for what’s hot in the world of TV, Joseph keeps his readers informed about the latest trends and must-see shows.
