It has dawned on me (make that, I have been dragged kicking and screaming to the realization) that old age is not for sissies. Those of us of a certain age understand this clearly. Our aging bodies present us with difficulties we would not have dared (or cared) to imagine twenty years ago. If we were to wake up in the morning and nothing hurt, we would be certain that we had passed from this life in our sleep and were standing at the gates of the sweet hereafter. And we then entrust the care of these creaky yet venerable old vessels to a health "care" system that possesses neither the means nor the will to do them justice. But that is a different rant.
The manifestation of the perils of old age that I have lately been experiencing, to my utter chagrin and horror, is the rampant ageism that afflicts our society. Apparently, the only time those of us over 60 are thought of as sentient human beings at all, is when we are brought up on charges of being responsible for anything and everything that ails the world today. "Boomer" has become an epithet that is spat in our direction any time something evil, unpleasant or difficult vexes the younger generations. We are held in no regard at all. We are laughed at, sneered at, ranted at, blamed and scorned. If a millennial burns his toast in the morning, a boomer surely booby-trapped his toaster.
I don't know about anyone else, but I'm not enjoying being the object of derision one moment, and patronizing pap or even outright neglect the next. It doesn't set well with me at all.
An article from The Atlantic curdled my coffee one fine morning a couple of weeks ago. One of their contributing journalists obviously sees himself as a Very Perceptive Music Critic. This little missive--The Joys of Geriatric Rock--caught my eye. For a hot minute, I thought perhaps some gen z reporter was going to serve up a tribute to the rockers whose music accompanied the coming of age of my generation. But, no. It turned out to be one of the most blatant, malignant pieces of ageism I have encountered in a long time.
You see, this asshole had already penned an article about how "geriatric rockers" should just... retire. What business did they have filling huge stadiums with pathetic old fans willing to part with astronomical sums of money just to see a band of their youth onstage one more time?
"Last year, I applauded rock artists who choose to age gracefully, mostly by exiting the stage. I deplored the acts who were trying to recapture their younger days while cynically vacuuming their fans’ pockets."
...is how he chose to describe his previous article.
Really?
Fuck you.
Who are you to say when an artist (and musicians ARE artists) needs to walk away from his art? As far as I know, there is no pull date on rock music of any decade. If people are willing to pay to see it performed by its originators, they have that right. If you think 70's and 80's rockers are too old to do the genre justice, that's your problem. These musicians...if they didn't invent the genre, they at the very least expanded, enhanced and progressed it...then handed it on to the next generation--a different and arguably more wonderful thing than when it was handed to them by the generation before. You venerate those people. You don't tell them to get the fuck offstage because rock is for the young. And you let them perform their craft for as long as they are able and willing.
The most ridiculous, to say nothing of hypocritical, aspect of this guy's point of view was what he featured in his second article. You see, he was somehow snookered into buying tickets to see one of HIS favorite bands of the 80's doing an emeritus concert...and, lo and behold, THIS concert was exactly right! THIS band did it perfectly! THIS was the ultimate celebration of who and what the band was 40 years ago, and a perfect gift to their fans.
Simply because it was a band he liked and he was, apparently, in a properly nostalgic frame of mind when he went to see them.
What a load of crap. The article left me seething with righteous indignation at the affront to the artists who rocked my generation to adulthood.
And livid at the ageism that is so ubiquitously broadcast in our society. And at the millennials, gen-y, or z, or whatever the hell other little bastards who just eat this crap up with a spoon.
Talk about "cynically vacuuming....pockets..."
