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Ageism in the USA: The paradox of prejudice against the elderly | Ashton Applewhite | Big Think
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Ageism in the USA: The paradox of prejudice against the elderly | Ashton Applewhite | Big Think

Ageism in the USA: The paradox of prejudice against the elderly Watch the newest video from Big Think: https://bigth.ink/NewVideo Join Big Think Edge for exclusive videos: https://bigth.ink/Edge ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prejudice is typically perpetrated against 'the other', i.e. a group outside our own. But ageism is prejudice against ourselves — at least, the people we will (hopefully!) become. Different generations needs to cooperate now more than ever to solve global problems. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ASHTON APPLEWHITE: Ashton Applewhite is a Brooklyn-based activist and writer. Her latest book, This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism, debunks many myths about late life. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRANSCRIPT: ASHTON APPLEWHITE: All prejudice is rooted in seeing a group as other than ourselves. Ageism is unique and uniquely weird in that other is us, our own future older selves. It's rooted in this crazy idea that somehow if we eat enough kale, or don't think about it, we're not going to become old, when, of course, actually, no one wants to die young, and we all aspire to getting old. And if we can become an old person in training, which is simply to form, like just a little leap of the imagination and acknowledge, someday I'm going to get old. That older you can be as far off on the horizon as you need it to be. But if you acknowledge that you, of course, are someday going to get old, and PS, it might not even all be so terrible, then you never get stuck on that hamster wheel of age denial. You are more likely to look at and listen to the older people around you, and make friends of all ages, which is so important, for people everywhere on the age spectrum. America is a deeply consumer driven society and deeply influenced by popular culture. And neither of those are friends to aging. If you look at pop culture, if you look at advertising, if you look at billboards, younger people are doing and selling all the fun stuff. Older people never seem to do anything, but a few rich ones with great hair get to go on cruises. And everyone else just stays home and takes drugs, and not the fun drugs either. If a group is missing from the popular conversation, then we don't notice its concerns and we're not awake to it. Over 50% of workers over 50 leave their jobs involuntarily. They are either fired or forced out. There is this massive growing body of workers. And we're talking 50 and up, we're talking people with 20 or 30 more years in which to support themselves. Most of them no longer have traditional pensions to support themselves. So they're thrown on their own ways they have to draw on Social Security earlier, which means that they get less out of the bucket. And if any younger people are thinking, well, too bad, you had a really good run of it, two things to think about. Social Security can very easily be fixed with very small changes, like, hello, taxing businesses at a higher rate, unlike Medicare, which really is a huge snake pit and very complicated to fix. But I hope there will be ton of Social Security left for my children and grandchildren. And I think it's very easy to make that happen. But also, if older people can't support themselves, who is going to support us? You know you can't take us out and shoot us, even if you want to. And the world is full of grandparents who help their kids with tuition, with childcare. More resources have always flowed from older people to younger people, which seems entirely appropriate to me. So we really, really need to be careful about old versus young framing in economic arenas or anywhere else. Another place you hear old versus young logic applied is the workforce. If only those old people would retire or get the heck out of dodge so we could have their jobs. When jobs are really few, if the only job in town is a barista at Starbucks, and a bunch of people are competing for them, that's true in the narrowest sense. You might have a 19-year-old and a 59-year-old who both really need that job. But in general, older and younger workers do not compete for the same jobs. And more tellingly, the amount and nature of labor is not fixed. Economists call this the fallacy of the lump of labor. And it has been debunked countless times. Otherwise, when women flooded into the workforce, all these guys would have been put out of work. And that's not the way it works. Or the time-honored example for Marxism, about Polish work factory workers and Irish factory workers competing, instead of organizing and striking to have their employer pay them all a decent wage... Read the full transcript at https://bigthink.com/videos/ageism-prejudice

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We are concert organizers with a passion to raise money for medical research. Our talented staff handles all aspects of the process from identifying the right headliner, booking the venue, promoting the event, and selling the tickets. We include your medical research organization in our planning sessions, catering the event to your needs and expectations. A portion of the proceeds from the event are then donated directly to your organization.

our talented staff

Max Hann, Director of Advertising and Promotion
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Max Hann has previously worked as a publicist, a video producer, and communications consultant. Max is from Mount Laurel, New Jersey and currently attends Rowan University as a Edelman Scholar and a dual major in Advertising and Radio, Television, and Film. 

Gabriella Schwochert, Associate Producer
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Gabriella Schwochert is an experienced event planner and conference planner and is also available to fully plan meal and dessert events before or after the concert for our clients. She is a student at Ocean County College majoring in hospitality management.

Emily Federico, Director of Public Relations and Social Media
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Emily Federico is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration at Florida Atlantic University, with a focus on Hospitality and Marketing. She has a strong passion for event coordination and is a specialist in event marketing. She has special interest in healthcare communications. She is an experienced social media coordinator and enjoys promoting our concerts to our audiences while highlighting the medical advances of our partner charities.

Ava Handler, Associate Producer
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Ava Handler is a student at Northeastern University majoring in music management. She is an talented performer herself and recently spent a semester in Dublin, Ireland. She brings her passion for promoting musical artists and her skills of helping to produce concerts to our organization.

Bob Kieserman, Producer
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Bob Kieserman has been producing entertainment for over 40 years. A performer himself, as a young man, Bob toured the east coast as both a solo performer and as the founder and leader of a 20-person singing group. He has since promoted many concerts and productions and truly enjoys bringing quality entertainment to audiences while also benefiting medical research. Bob spent his career as a professor of healthcare administration and medical ethics and has worked with major hospitals and medical practices throughout the country. 

coming this summer
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Steve & Steve are two 70-something singer-songwriters who have been “keepin’ 60s music alive” since before 60s music was considered “oldies”.

 

Both from northern New Jersey, Steve Messinger ("Mess") and Steve Bernstein ("Bernie") met as students at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA in 1969. It all started one afternoon when Bernie, a freshman, brought his guitar into the lobby of the coed dorm hoping to meet women, when, lo and behold, Mess, a sophomore, walked by, sat down with Bernie and instantly the two started to harmonize on tunes by The Beatles, The Everly Brothers and others. Thus, a legendary act was born.

 

Following their time together at F&M and a 10-year post-college hiatus, Steve & Steve reunited in 1983 to perform at Bernie's 10th year F&M Reunion, which rekindled their passion for performing together.

 

Steve & Steve have been privileged to share concert stages with some of their favorite 60s artists: Chad & Jeremy, The Grass Roots, Jay & The Americans, Herman’s Hermits (with Peter Noone), Gary Puckett & The Union Gap, Felix Cavaliere (The Rascals), Micky Dolenz (The Monkeys), The Happenings, Kate Taylor (whose first  60s-era album was produced by her brother, James), Don Dannemann (The Cyrkle), The Fifth Dimension, plus the 70s artist, Badfinger.

 

Despite having performed songs from their ever-expanding 750-song playlist for the past 55 years, Steve & Steve continue to be energized by those harmony-driven 60s songs. A typical Steve & Steve performance will treat the crowd to tunes by Simon & Garfunkel, Neil Diamond, Peter & Gordon, Cat Stevens, The Rolling Stones, James Taylor, Crosby Stills & Nash and, of course, The Beatles and The Everly Brothers. At every show, Steve & Steve delight in performing songs that formed the soundtrack to their lives, and in seeing just how much those same songs, 50+ years later, still resonate with their audiences.

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