If Arizona is the land of the Right, it is also the home of the Retiree. Which is perfectly fine, although the Alaskan Queen Sarah Palin is still there rattling her "death panels for seniors" shaman stick. But lets not tarry with the fatuous. There is something far more telling coming out of the Grand Canyon State.
Remember those "mean girls" from school days? Well, they're back!
To be more precise, they never left. The Arizona Department of Economic Security reports that those legions of bratty, pushy, intimidating girls so many had to endure in school are still with us and flourishing in retirement communities. The counter-intuitive facts are that these distasteful little creatures never quite grew up. And never quite grew out of their ignoble ways.
Today these are the blue-haired harridans who hold court at the dinner tables...make sure only the seal-of-approved residents get to sit in the card games...see to it that the wrong-people don't mix in with the right-people. Arizona State University gerontology expert Robin Boniface reports that "10 to 20% of older people in care homes experience some type of abuse from fellow residents. You are either in the clique or you're among the banished."
There's something terribly despairing about such reports, for aren't they a sticky thumbnail sketch of the human condition? One more reason for the Candides of the world to stop counting on Dr Pangloss' myth that the world is getting better and better every day in every way. Apparently it's not -- at least not in many senior communities.
But now to extrapolate...! Because truths once discovered in one place call for learning what they may tell us elsewhere. Elsewhere in society and in its ways. For instance, despite formal education, fine books, good churches, and Oprah's best intentions, the human condition still seems stuck in post-Eden envies and animosities. Crimes and violence. Greeds and wars. From Arizona to Alabama to Afghanistan, it seems like we just don't make much progress as a species. What we were is what we still are. How we behaved then is how we pretty much behave now.
Long sigh.....
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This sounds sad, but I think it's all too true. Humanity is often not what it's cracked up to be
ReplyDeleteI still have hope that we can change ... I must have hope or there isn't a reason for tomorrow ... A fine article Jack ... Thank you for taking the time to ruminate and compose this so that I might remember the small things that I'm grateful for in my life ... Like not marrying such a person ... and heaven forbid 'Being One’...
ReplyDeleteGeezer ~ I admire and respect your hope. I have some left too, but with the years, it keeps seeping out. At least you've got Lisa's grand menus to help nourish you through the grim times. I've got Joan's!
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