industry & reform
and insisted that your role was now to consume vast amounts of product from our enterprises .
Problem is the Empire required everyone ’ s collusion for this to work , when most people really do strive to be humanist and inclusive .
So , it did what all great marketing campaigns do .
• It increased the frequency and variety of the attachment of deviancy images to you so that we never saw you without them . We never saw you engaged in a variety of typical roles , in typical settings , with typical people , being typically productive , having typical fun , surrounded by typical language .
• It never explained what it was up to , so that most ‘ deviancy imaging ’ is done entirely unconsciously by those who care for our elders , with little desire to examine their practices , because they are so admired for what they are doing .
Hold on ! Haven ’ t we seen this before – a whole section of society rebranded so that we weren ’ t uncomfortable with our collusion in doing them in ?
Now there ’ s no escaping ‘ biological ageing ’ and nor would we want to ; it ’ s after all our destiny that no one wants cut short . So , modern elders ride the dilemma of wanting to embrace their longer lives , but not wanting a bar of the ‘ ageing brand ’. The Empire wants you to think this is denial of biological ageing .
Older people now face a personal choice between assuming the ‘ ageing brand ’ or the ‘ modern elder brand ’. Between ageing or eldering . Ageing requiring you to accept and live your life as an over-ripe apple waiting to fall off the tree . Eldering requiring you to find and develop those new productive roles that are coming with living longer and that society values .
Eldering is the best safeguard against the Empire destroying your reputation . Problem is no-one teaches it , noone offers it , no-one enables it . And if the building blocks to roles are skills and reputation , then destruction of reputations goes a long way to preventing eldering .
So , modern elders , do we need a personal image makeover , or do we need the Empire to stop ‘ deviancy imaging ’ us ? Bit of both . We could try harder to look modern ( not younger ). But mostly we want the Empire to cut it out . So , let ’ s all make ‘ deviancy imaging ’ part of our consciousness and language . And let ’ s join-up with others by signing the Every Age Counts pledge .
And Empire , we want our ‘ elder brand ’ back . ■
Mike Rungie specialises in the intersection between good lives and aged care . He is a member of a number of boards and committees including ACFA , Every Age Counts , Global Centre for Modern Ageing and GAP Productive Ageing Committee .
AMH Aged Care Companion
The AMH Aged Care Companion is a trusted , practical reference for all health professionals and carers who work with older people . It contains the latest evidence-based information on the management of more than 70 conditions common in older people . The current release includes a number of changes . Updated topics including behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia ( BPSD ), epilepsy , heart failure , immunisation , type 2 diabetes and urinary tract infections to name a few .
Available in book or online . For further information or to purchase go to www . amh . net . au agedcareinsite . com . au 13