Issue 51 cover
Cover Art by Pete Gamlen
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Aging

  • Issue 51
  • Fall 2023
“Patriots never live idly by reason of their old age. China had people such as Ma Fu Po. Our country had people such as Ly Thuong Kiet. The older they grew, the more energetic and heroic they became....

Our children are young, they will do heavy work. We are old, we cannot do heavy work, but leaning on our sticks, we will take the lead to encourage them and impart our experiences to them. We are elders, we must sincerely unite first to set an example to our children.”
— Ho Chi Minh, Letter to Old People, 1945

“We deserve to die in ways that are less mediated by capitalism.”

Features

Alexander Zaitchik

The Empire Calls Back

India’s phone scam industry targets the elderly to the tune of billions each year. Its secret weapon? The loss of communal public life and family support.

“‘Population aging’ has been almost synonymous with austerity and market reform.”

“We are people of this generation, bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit.”

“Ikaria is one of the five ‘blue zones’ — places where it is common for people to live over a hundred years.”

“The superrich’s quest for immortality is the logical end point of its lust for power and desire to operate without constraint.”

“The magic of acting, and of hosting, is its impromptu nature. I can’t imagine how soulless it all would be to replace it with AI.”