Age Discrimination

Sybille Berg, a former German and now Swiss author, lives and writes in Zürich. She is one of the most frequently performed playwrights in the German-speaking world. Since 2011, Sybille has regularly written articles for DER SPIEGEL.

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Her recent essay deals with age discrimination, i.e., about a gray mass that almost fills younger people with disgust. Is it because no one in Lohn und Brot (in wage and bread) wants to imagine a time when he/she belongs to the same category of people and faces the unreasonableness of his/her mortality?

Sybille claims that only those who can perform, multiply, and be active have value in our society and that old age is a blind spot in the increasingly sharper debate on equity and participation.

When people are old, they walk more slowly, hear worse, and are often entirely pushed out of social life. They hinder the fast pace, are Nazis, can't install an app, and have ruined the planet.

Wait a moment, Sybille, you lump together all those beings of "old age"

Indeed, Red Baron walks more slowly, but I am not a Nazi. I work with computers and sometimes have problems installing programs like everybody else. And yes, I ruined and am still ruining the planet simply due to my sheer presence.

You must actively invest in your social life so you aren't pushed out of it. Look at the many older benefactors who care for the elderly, are Tagesmütter/väter (childminders), or work at Tafelläden (food banks). Without all the mostly benevolent helpers, our society would collapse.

One of Goethe's Maxims states, "Whoever strives, we can redeem." Red Baron remains socially active, especially since he lives as a widower.
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