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Monday 30 April 2012

Mortality's Escape Velocity

Now then...

Having last time waxed lyrical on the topic of food combinations I had to think long and hard about what next to ruminate upon.  After all what could possibly be so weighty a subject that it could invoke the same primal concern as the presence of Philadelphia’s chocolate and cheese spread.

I chose mortality.

I know, I know; not quite in the same ball park but I haven't really speaked my brains about it so far.

A year or so ago I got into a discussion about theory versus actuality and how it applies to real-life subject matters.  Here in the UK at least one is likely to be aware that the Coalition government (tell me that doesn't outright sound like an oppressive title straight out of a speculative fiction novel) is pushing for the retirement age to be pushed higher.

People are rightfully concerned about this, hopefully because the ConDem crew are looking to put this in place whether the public wants it or not.

This however is not the topic at large here though.  Beyond retirement comes death, obviously.  In a recent report on retirement it was noted that many health experts are confident that more than a third of Britons today are quite likely to live to be a hundred.  Aside from wrecking the Queens telegram writing hand this seems to be an area of more concern than it is cause for celebration.  For many individuals the thought of prolonging their life is appealing even if all it means is that they'll have more time to put off doing the things they say they want to do but never would get round to doing given a THOUSAND year life expectancy.

To the world at large it means another mouth to feed whilst more and more get manufactured in them womb things I've heard tell of.

This may seem enough of a leap as it is but more recently it has been said that the first person to reach 150 is already alive and only a number of weeks ago some scientist or other declared there may be a potential three hundred year old knocking about!

Here in good old Blighty the average life expectancy rose from just over seventy in 1960 to just over eighty in 2010.  Now 'experts' are telling us that the bucket kicking age is rising faster than we can actually age.

I'm of the impression that all these scientist and doctors and what-not need to get together to decide how to move on with all this business.  Many deliver the news of elongated life spans with the same underlying dread as when my old ma invites us round for Sunday dinner.  To these white lab-coated miscreants I say, 'if you don't think people should be living longer, stop making it possible!'

Let's not forget that a longer life does not guarantee a good one.  After all, if you've basically spent your youth, young adulthood and middle-age picking fluff out of your belly button, what makes you think you're going to achieve more with varicos veins and an increasingly fickle bladder to deal with on top?

2 comments:

  1. What happened to survival of the fittest? I guess that's out the window then. It's quite...nice that we'll live a lot longer but it also means we'll need to work longer and receive a lesser pension. Lame.

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    1. Ah. If only it was only the cleverest/fittest that thrived these days. If that were the case we wouldn't have to suffer the likes of Britain's Got Talent. If - just for one series of one of these 'talent' shows - the queue led not into a studio but a blast furnace, the world would be markedly improved.

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