By: Jacob Mattie; Peak Associate
Old people — the ones that aren’t outright critical of any change — are often renowned for their mellow nature. For this reason, they are entirely deserving of the flak I’m about to throw at them. Either they have lived their entire lives willfully unaware of the injustices of the world, or they simply choose to be inactive.
Of course, it is unreasonable to expect anyone to be aware of every social issue, and many struggle with internet-based communication. But between parades, civil disobediences, and even riots, it’s difficult to ignore social justice movements and issues.
Any senior who has never come to terms with social injustice has done so through intentional ignorance, and so deserves what I’m roasting them for. More likely, the average old person has some inkling things are not rosy pink in the world for everyone. My question: what the fuck are they doing about it?
Of any social group, the elderly are the best-equipped to enact social change. They have decades of experience to work with, are almost universally regarded as people we should listen to, and have free time to spare. They’re typically not supporting families, or working to pay off mortgages. Surely they have better things to do with their time than watching Jeopardy reruns or drinking prune juice at the local bingo hall. Like working on long-term solutions to things like Vancouver’s opioid crisis, or helping undo some of the damage that they’ve allowed to escalate into the climate crisis.
