Longevity Revolution: As Boomers Become Elders

Rating:
Summary: Aging boomers will get better.
Review: Longevity Revolution examines a rare and powerful social change soon to be making its way into the American culture. The graying of America's baby boomers will put the country's senior population on par with each of the younger population sizes. Well founded or not, younger generations fear the future where they must carry the financial burden of senior entitlement programs. Rather than paint aging boomers with that unkind brush, Longevity Revolution sees them as a national asset.

Throughout most of the book, the author displays great faith that the boomer generation will make more enlightened life choices (e.g., playing less golf, and spending more time volunteering for social justice). Along that line, he believes that the older and wiser boomer will sacrifice much of their material comforts to find fulfillment in non-material ways. As a consequent, this large senior demographic will use much less of the world's resources, and will send a message to our youth to "walk lightly" on the planet.

Whether or not you share the same faith in a kinder and gentler baby boomer generation, the book presents a number of reasonable scenarios that could play out in the coming decades (e.g., terrific advances in medicine giving boomers much more productive golden years). After reading Longevity Revolution I was left with the impression that boomers will become far less demanding and materialistic in old age, and somehow more interested in the well being of others, the future of our planet, etc. I'm hopeful, but wonder if you can teach "an old dog a new trick."

Rating:
Summary: The making of an elder culture
Review: Longevity Revolution is an intellectual adventure, a tour de force. This brilliant author reveals a wealth of original thinking about the changing nature of society due to the phenomenon of an aging population, and more specifically, an aging baby boom. He makes a cogent case for a healthcare economy and a society that uplifts rather than sidelines its oldest citizens. He embraces the aging process as the ultimate expression of a technologically advanced civilization. His acerbic pen effectively skewers conservative scare tactics about entitlements, juvenile media tactics, and a culture focused on youth to the exclusion of maturity. Roszak was and is the leading thinker about the odyssey of a generation.