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Throughout human history you had societies that would kill or shame the elderly because they became burdens on society. Simplifying it to just be that 'taking c
by fzeroracer 4y ago
Throughout human history you had societies that would kill or shame the elderly because they became burdens on society. Simplifying it to just be that 'taking care of one parents was every adults duty' isn't really correct at all. Many it was the duty of the son. In Roman times if you were not of use to society you were considered a burden. Poorer families would leave the elderly to die, richer ones would marry younger women to serve as caregivers.
- hotpotamus 4y agoThis reminded me of a scene in a forgotten movie (North), where Elijah Wood goes on a quest to find the perfect parents. He's initially taken with Eskimo culture and his potential new parents who expect nothing of their children. However, he's fairly quickly disillusioned when they take grandpa out to an iceberg to abandon him to the sea as he has outlived his usefulness. Grandpa does make some half-hearted assurances that this is what he wants, and so it's all ok.
- Ekaros 4y agoElderly kept contributing in someway or an other. Maybe not the hardest physical labour, but what they could still do. And those who weren't functional I would guess tended to die pretty quickly if not extremely wealthy to pay servants to keep them around. I wonder if the things if not for current pensioners, but those coming will change and we are not ready as society to keep them barely living despite them not being able to carry out most basic tasks like going to bathroom.