Ageism: The Devaluation of the Elderly

by Vincent R. Pozon

This article was sparked by a devotional on the Bible app that read, “There was a time when respect for the elderly wasn’t just encouraged but expected. While not entirely extinct, it has become a rarity.”

It was probably during my first year in advertising when I heard an account executive whisper to somebody in Traffic, the department given the responsibility to keep work moving efficiently: 'Huwag mong ibigay kay tanda' ('do not give this job to the old man'). The art department was a mix of freelancers and salaried staff—art directors worked in one room, while FA (final art) artists sat in rows in another, paid per project.  When Traffic assigned work, it wasn’t just a task; it meant money for food on somebody’s table. 

What I overheard appalled me. I was a novice copywriter then, still trying to understand the white-collar world, having been a talyer boy, a manual laborer, just a few months prior. I didn’t know the term at the time, if it was even coined yet, but I was witnessing ageism in its cruelest form. It doesn’t just belittle; it disables—it denies someone the chance to earn.

Years later, during business trips to Japan, I observed how they treat their elderly. The reverence is palpable. In this non-Christian nation, people listen to and obey and bow before elders in both workplaces and the streets, with age defining the bend of the back: you bow lower to older. Elders are seen as sources of wisdom and authority, and I thought, 'this is where I want to grow old'.

Meanwhile, in the Philippines, our love affair with American culture has led us to embrace the “business above all” mindset, and with it, ageism. Dismissive comments like ‘Naku, ang gurang, ayaw tumahimik' ('the old geezer just won't shut up') flood social media.

About a decade ago, I was in a meeting with people from the local show business industry, and while they have never met me, the meeting being first contact, I could, from their reactions, hear what was unsaid: 'Bakit nagsama ng matanda?' ('Why did they bring an old person along?')

More recently, I was asked to recommend teachers for an advertising course. I eagerly gave the names of seasoned professionals—people with a lifetime of wisdom from whom I still learn. They’d rather have younger, they said, they’d rather not seniors. They’d rather not wiser, it seems.

Why older adults fair better in some countries and cultures

While ageism may have many modern-day causes—such as intergenerational dependency, globalization, and better health conditions leading to longer lifespans, religion appears to be the primordial loam.

Countries "influenced by Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism give value to the wisdom imparted by elders and treat them with a high degree of respect," wrote Pam Moorhouse in an article on LinkedIn.  

Religion dictates how society is shaped, how we deal with each other. "Collectivistic countries like Japan, China, Korea, India, and Brazil—which tend to focus on group cohesion and harmony—had much less of a bias toward older people... Individualistic countries like the United States, Germany, Ireland, South Africa, and Australia tend to stress independence and forging one’s own identity, wrote Caroline Brooks in "Study Identifies Countries and States with Greatest Age Biases", a Michigan State University article presenting the results of two large studies involving countries and cultures and 800,000 respondents each.

And this is why people lie about how old they are

In collectivistic cultures, elders are seen as wise guides. In contrast, Western secularism views aging through the lens of physical and mental decline. Hence aging is denied, and years are deducted.

“Countries that showed high bias also showed an interesting effect when you asked people how old they felt. In ageist cultures, people tended to report feeling particularly younger than their actual age,” wrote William Chopik, author of the two studies. “We interpreted this as something called age-group dissociation — or, feeling motivated to distance yourself from that group. People do this is by identifying with younger age groups, and lying about their age."

Since ageism is in the mind, it is a war we can win

"Changing negative beliefs about age is not as hard as we might think", wrote Larry W. Chambers and Rebekah Sibbald in an article "The ABCs of Combating Ageism", published in Healthy Debate (link below).

The ABCs of combating ageism - Healthy Debate

We all need to rethink aging. Not only do our beliefs play an essential role in the aging process, but changing our beliefs is not as hard as we might think.

Healthy DebateMaddi Dellplain

The authors consider the discriminatory mindset malleable, providing "a structure for chipping away at our own negative age stereotypes. They recommend "building a list of positive older role models"... avoiding the term “senior moment” to describe when either ourselves or an older person misplaces objects or details. Instead, they suggest we consider other causes of temporary forgetfulness: being rushed, distracted, stressed or upset", and, yes, to confront ageism when it arises.

The article ends with the counsel to rethink aging, to have a conversation with family members and friends about it.

The need for a mind-changing advocacy campaign 

"Older adults are one of the only stigmatized groups that we all become part of some day. And that's always struck me as interesting—that we would treat so poorly a group of people that we're destined to become someday," mused Chopik.

While I cannot hope to create a perceptible stir in the forest, change perceptions without the means to launch a campaign, I can shake a tree. Whenever I encounter ageism, I call it out—so others may recognize the wrong in it.

I give no one a reason to use ageism against me. If age brings difficulties in mobility, I 'use the difficulty,' to quote the venerable Michael Caine.

My abhorrence for ageism is one of the cattle prods that drives this old heifer to do better, to be more productive, to be younger than the young in my craft and science—to do what they can only wish to achieve, and to show them that they still stand in my shadow.

Vincent R. Pozon

After a year of college, Koyang entered advertising, and there he stayed for half a century, in various agencies, multinational and local. He is known for aberrant strategic successes (e.g., Clusivol’s ‘Bawal Magkasakit’, Promil’s ‘The Gifted Child’, RiteMED’s ‘May RiteMED ba nito?', VP Binay's 'Ganito Kami sa Makati', JV Ejercito's 'The Good One'). He is chairman of Estima, an ad agency dedicated to helping local industrialists, causes and candidates. He is co-founder and counselor for advertising, public relations, and crisis management of Caucus, Inc., a multi-discipline consultancy firm. He can be reached through vpozon@me.com.