Old Age

“Old age exposes the failure of our entire civilisation”.

~ Simone de Beauvoir

What ideas or observations ~ of a spiritual, philosophical or ideological kind ~ does this quote trigger?

@fmf said
“Old age exposes the failure of our entire civilisation”.

~ Simone de Beauvoir

What ideas or observations ~ of a spiritual, philosophical or ideological kind ~ does this quote trigger?

i was struck first by a notion of wanting more
i wanted more context of what she was speaking of
so i went searching
the lady was a thinker

It is old age, rather than death, that is to be contrasted with life. Old age is life's parody, whereas death transforms life into a destiny: in a way it preserves it by giving it the absolute dimension. Death does away with time.
~Simone de Beauvoir

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It is not mere chance that makes families speak of a child who is 'extraordinary for his age' and also of an old man who is 'extraordinary for his age'; the extraordinariness lies in their behaving like human beings when they are either not yet or no longer men.
~ Simone de Beauvoir

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Society turns away from the aged worker as though he belonged to another species. That is why the whole question is buried in a conspiracy of silence. Old age exposes the failure of our entire civilization.
~Simone de Beauvoir

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i know more now than i did ten minutes ago
and yet i am ten minutes older than i was ten minutes ago

you become old only on the outside.... Socrates..

The older I get, the more I realise how little I know.

@hakima said
The older I get, the more I realise how little I know.

True, and the older I get the more I realise how little the younger generation know.

If I think about places where I have lived, I can see that in Britain, Ireland, Australia and Japan, stories of old age pensioners dying alone and their bodies being found in their houses or apartments ~ and there being difficulty tracing next of kin etc. the neighbours did not know them etc. it was only when the postman saw the letterbox overflowing etc. etc. ~ are relatively normal and common, especially in winter.

But here in Indonesia, it is apparently far less common and almost unheard of in the parts of the country where I have lived ~ although it would not surprise me if it happens sometimes in the really big cities.