To give me an idea of how many of you here may find what I'm about to tell you of practical value, let me ask you please to raise your hands: Who here is either over 65 years old or hopes to live past age 65 or has parents or grandparents who did live or have lived past 65, raise your hands please. (Laughter)
Kako bih stekao utisak kolikom broju vas ovde ovo što ću vam reći može biti od praktičnog značaja, molim vas da podignete ruke: oni ovde koji su stariji od 65 godina ili se nadaju da će živeti duže od 65 godina ili imaju roditelje ili babu i dedu koji su preživeli duže od 65. godine? Molim vas da podignete ruke. (Smeh)
Okay. You are the people to whom my talk will be of practical value. (Laughter) The rest of you won't find my talk personally relevant, but I think that you will still find the subject fascinating.
U redu. Vi ste oni kojima će moj govor biti od praktičnog značaja. (Smeh) Ostalima moj govor neće biti lično značajan, ali mislim da će vam tema ipak biti zapanjujuća.
I'm going to talk about growing older in traditional societies. This subject constitutes just one chapter of my latest book, which compares traditional, small, tribal societies with our large, modern societies, with respect to many topics such as bringing up children, growing older, health, dealing with danger, settling disputes, religion and speaking more than one language.
Govoriću vam o starenju u tradicionalnim društvima. Ovo čini samo jedno poglavlje u mojoj poslednjoj knjizi, koja poredi mala, tradicionalna, plemenska društva sa našim velikim, modernim društvima po pitanju mnogih tema kao što su podizanje dece, starenje, zdravlje, nošenje sa opasnošću, rešavanje konflikata, religija i znanje više od jednog jezika.
Those tribal societies, which constituted all human societies for most of human history, are far more diverse than are our modern, recent, big societies. All big societies that have governments, and where most people are strangers to each other, are inevitably similar to each other and different from tribal societies. Tribes constitute thousands of natural experiments in how to run a human society. They constitute experiments from which we ourselves may be able to learn. Tribal societies shouldn't be scorned as primitive and miserable, but also they shouldn't be romanticized as happy and peaceful. When we learn of tribal practices, some of them will horrify us, but there are other tribal practices which, when we hear about them, we may admire and envy and wonder whether we could adopt those practices ourselves.
Plemenska društva koja su činila celokupno ljudsko drušvo u većem delu ljudske istorije su mnogo raznolikija od naših modernih, savremenih, velikih društava. Sva velika društva koja imaju vladu i gde su većina ljudi stranci jedni drugima su neizbežno slična jedna drugima i različita od plemenskih zajednica. Plemena čine hiljade prirodnih eksperimenata o tome kako upravljati ljudskim društvom. Ona čine eksperimente iz kojih mi možemo da učimo. Plemenska društva ne treba nipodaštavati kao primitivne i bedne, ali ih ne treba ni romantizovati kao srećne i miroljubive. Kada otkrivamo plemenske običaje neka od njih nas prestrave, ali postoje i drugi plemenski običaji kojima, kada čujemo za njih, možemo da se divimo i zavidimo na njima i da se zapitamo da li treba i mi da ih usvojimo.
Most old people in the U.S. end up living separately from their children and from most of their friends of their earlier years, and often they live in separate retirements homes for the elderly, whereas in traditional societies, older people instead live out their lives among their children, their other relatives, and their lifelong friends. Nevertheless, the treatment of the elderly varies enormously among traditional societies, from much worse to much better than in our modern societies.
Većina starijih ljudi u SAD živi odvojeno od svoje dece i većine svojih prijatelja iz ranijih godina i često žive odvojeno, u staračkim domovima, dok u tradicionalnim društvima umesto toga, stariji ljudi proživljavaju svoj život među svojom decom, ostalom rodbinom i svojim dugogodišnjim prijateljima. Ipak, odnos prema starijima se ogromno razlikuje među tradicionalnim društvima od mnogo gorih do mnogo boljih nego u našim modernim društvima.
At the worst extreme, many traditional societies get rid of their elderly in one of four increasingly direct ways: by neglecting their elderly and not feeding or cleaning them until they die, or by abandoning them when the group moves, or by encouraging older people to commit suicide, or by killing older people. In which tribal societies do children abandon or kill their parents? It happens mainly under two conditions. One is in nomadic, hunter-gather societies that often shift camp and that are physically incapable of transporting old people who can't walk when the able-bodied younger people already have to carry their young children and all their physical possessions. The other condition is in societies living in marginal or fluctuating environments, such as the Arctic or deserts, where there are periodic food shortages, and occasionally there just isn't enough food to keep everyone alive. Whatever food is available has to be reserved for able-bodied adults and for children. To us Americans, it sounds horrible to think of abandoning or killing your own sick wife or husband or elderly mother or father, but what could those traditional societies do differently? They face a cruel situation of no choice. Their old people had to do it to their own parents, and the old people know what now is going to happen to them.
U najgorem slučaju, mnoga tradicionalna društva se ratosiljaju starijih na jedan od četiri rastući neposrednih načina: zapostavljanjem starijih i ukidanjem hrane ili higijene dok ne umru, ili njihovim napuštanjem kada grupa krene dalje, ili ohrabrivanjem starijih da izvrše samoubistvo, ili ubijanjem starijih ljudi. U kojim plemenskim zajednicama deca napuštaju ili ubijaju roditelje? Uglavnom se to dešava u dve okolnosti. Jedna su nomadske zajednice, lovci i sakupljači, koje često menjaju mesto i koje su fizički sprečene da prenose starije koji ne mogu da hodaju, jer sposobni mladi moraju da nose svoju malu decu i sva njihova posedstva. Druga okolnost je u društvima koja žive u marginalnim ili promenljivim uslovima kao što su Arktik ili pustinje, gde se javljaju periodi nestašice hrane i povremeno nema dovoljno hrane kako bi svi preživeli. Hrana koja je dostupna mora da se sačuva za fizički sposobne odrasle i za decu. Nama ovo zvuči užasno, zamisliti da napustimo ili ubijemo našu bolesnu suprugu ili muža ili ostarelu majku ili oca, ali šta bi te tradicionalne zajednice mogle da urade drugačije? Susreću se sa okrutnim situacijama, bez izbora. Stariji su morali to da urade svojim roditeljima i oni znaju da će se to sada njima dogoditi.
At the opposite extreme in treatment of the elderly, the happy extreme, are the New Guinea farming societies where I've been doing my fieldwork for the past 50 years, and most other sedentary traditional societies around the world. In those societies, older people are cared for. They are fed. They remain valuable. And they continue to live in the same hut or else in a nearby hut near their children, relatives and lifelong friends.
Suprotna krajnost u odnosu prema starijima, srećna krajnost, su poljoprivredna društva Nove Gvineje, u kojima sam proteklih 50 godina radio na terenu, kao i većina drugih sedelačkih tradicionalnih društava širom sveta. U tim društvima se brinu o starijima. Hrane ih. Oni ostaju bitni. Oni nastavljaju da žive u istoj kolibi sa ili u nekoj kolibi u blizini svoje dece, rodbine i starih prijatelja.
There are two main sets of reasons for this variation among societies in their treatment of old people. The variation depends especially on the usefulness of old people and on the society's values.
Postoje dve velike grupe uzroka ovih razlika između društava u njihovom odnosu prema starijima. Razlika se uglavnom zasniva na korisnosti starijih i na društvenim vrednostima.
First, as regards usefulness, older people continue to perform useful services. One use of older people in traditional societies is that they often are still effective at producing food. Another traditional usefulness of older people is that they are capable of babysitting their grandchildren, thereby freeing up their own adult children, the parents of those grandchildren, to go hunting and gathering food for the grandchildren. Still another traditional value of older people is in making tools, weapons, baskets, pots and textiles. In fact, they're usually the people who are best at it. Older people usually are the leaders of traditional societies, and the people most knowledgeable about politics, medicine, religion, songs and dances.
Što se tiče korisnosti, stariji ljudi nastavljaju da obavljaju korisne radnje. Jedna od stvari u kojima su stariji korisni u tradicionalnim društvima je to što su oni i dalje efikasni u stvaranju hrane. Druga tradicionalna korist od starijih je njihova sposobnost da čuvaju decu, njihove unuke, čime oslobađaju svoju odraslu decu, roditelje tih unuka, i oni mogu da love i sakupljaju hranu za te unuke. Još jedna tradicionalna vrednost starijih je pravljenje alata, oružja, korpi, posuđa i tekstila. U stvari, oni su uglavnom ti koji su najbolji u tome. Stariji ljudi su uglavnom vođe tradicionalnih društava i oni znaju najviše o politici, medicini, religiji, pesmama i plesovima.
Finally, older people in traditional societies have a huge significance that would never occur to us in our modern, literate societies, where our sources of information are books and the Internet. In contrast, in traditional societies without writing, older people are the repositories of information. It's their knowledge that spells the difference between survival and death for their whole society in a time of crisis caused by rare events for which only the oldest people alive have had experience. Those, then, are the ways in which older people are useful in traditional societies. Their usefulness varies and contributes to variation in the society's treatment of the elderly.
Stariji ljudi u tradicionalnim društvima imaju ogromnu važnost koju mi, u modernim, pismenim društvima nikada ne bismo uvideli. Naši izvori informacija su knjige i internet. Suprotno tome, u tradicionalnim društvima bez pisma, stariji ljudi su skladište informacija. Njihovo znanje određuje razliku između preživljavanja i smrti njihovog čitavog društva u vremenima krize prouzrokovane retkim događajima koje su samo najstariji živi ljudi već iskusili. To su načini na koje su stariji ljudi korisni u tradicionalnim društvima. Njihova korisnost se razlikuje i doprinosi razlikama u društvenom odnosu prema starijima.
The other set of reasons for variation in the treatment of the elderly is the society's cultural values. For example, there's particular emphasis on respect for the elderly in East Asia, associated with Confucius' doctrine of filial piety, which means obedience, respect and support for elderly parents. Cultural values that emphasize respect for older people contrast with the low status of the elderly in the U.S. Older Americans are at a big disadvantage in job applications. They're at a big disadvantage in hospitals. Our hospitals have an explicit policy called age-based allocation of healthcare resources. That sinister expression means that if hospital resources are limited, for example if only one donor heart becomes available for transplant, or if a surgeon has time to operate on only a certain number of patients, American hospitals have an explicit policy of giving preference to younger patients over older patients on the grounds that younger patients are considered more valuable to society because they have more years of life ahead of them, even though the younger patients have fewer years of valuable life experience behind them. There are several reasons for this low status of the elderly in the U.S. One is our Protestant work ethic which places high value on work, so older people who are no longer working aren't respected. Another reason is our American emphasis on the virtues of self-reliance and independence, so we instinctively look down on older people who are no longer self-reliant and independent. Still a third reason is our American cult of youth, which shows up even in our advertisements. Ads for Coca-Cola and beer always depict smiling young people, even though old as well as young people buy and drink Coca-Cola and beer. Just think, what's the last time you saw a Coke or beer ad depicting smiling people 85 years old? Never. Instead, the only American ads featuring white-haired old people are ads for retirement homes and pension planning.
Druga grupa uzroka razlika u odnosu prema starijima su kulturne vrednosti društva. Na primer, u Istočnoj Aziji poseban naglasak je na poštovanju starijih što se povezuje sa Konfučijevom doktrinom privrženosti dece, koja podrazumeva poslušnost, poštovanje i podršku starijim roditeljima. Kulturne vrednosti koje naglašavaju poštovanje starijih su u kontrastu sa niskim statusom starijih u SAD. Stariji Amerikanci su podređeniji pri prijavi za posao. Manje su prioritetni u bolnicama. Američke bolnice imaju eksplicitnu politiku nazvanu "raspodela zdravstvenih resursa na osnovu godina". Ovaj grešni izraz znači da ako su bolnički resursi ograničeni, na primer, ako se javi samo jedno donorsko srce za transplantaciju, ili ako hirurg ima vremena da operiše samo određeni broj pacijenata, američke bolnice imaju eksplicitnu politiku davanja prednosti mlađim naspram starijim pacijentima na osnovu toga što se mlađi pacijenti smatraju vrednijim društvu, jer imaju više godina života pred sobom, iako mlađi pacijenti imaju manje godina vrednog životnog iskustva za sobom. Postoji nekoliko razloga ovako niskog statusa starijih u SAD. Jedna je protestantska radna etika, koja visoko vrednuje rad, tako da stariji ljudi koji više ne rade ne dobijaju poštovanje. Još jedan razlog je američki naglasak na vrline oslanjanja na sopstvene snage i nezavisnosti, tako da mi automatski podređujemo starije ljude, koji postaju zavisni i nisu više samostalni. Treći razlog je američki kult mladosti koji se javlja čak i u reklamama. Reklame za Koka-kolu i pivo uvek prikazuju nasmejane mlade ljude, iako stariji, isto kao i mladi, kupuju i piju Koka-kolu i pivo. Razmislite samo. Kada ste poslednji put videli reklamu za Kolu ili pivo koja prikazuje nasmejane ljude u 85. godini? Nikad. Umesto toga, jedine američke reklame koje prikazuju sede starije ljude su reklame za staračke domove i penzioni plan.
Well, what has changed in the status of the elderly today compared to their status in traditional societies? There have been a few changes for the better and more changes for the worse. Big changes for the better include the fact that today we enjoy much longer lives, much better health in our old age, and much better recreational opportunities. Another change for the better is that we now have specialized retirement facilities and programs to take care of old people. Changes for the worse begin with the cruel reality that we now have more old people and fewer young people than at any time in the past. That means that all those old people are more of a burden on the few young people, and that each old person has less individual value. Another big change for the worse in the status of the elderly is the breaking of social ties with age, because older people, their children, and their friends, all move and scatter independently of each other many times during their lives. We Americans move on the average every five years. Hence our older people are likely to end up living distant from their children and the friends of their youth. Yet another change for the worse in the status of the elderly is formal retirement from the workforce, carrying with it a loss of work friendships and a loss of the self-esteem associated with work. Perhaps the biggest change for the worse is that our elderly are objectively less useful than in traditional societies. Widespread literacy means that they are no longer useful as repositories of knowledge. When we want some information, we look it up in a book or we Google it instead of finding some old person to ask. The slow pace of technological change in traditional societies means that what someone learns there as a child is still useful when that person is old, but the rapid pace of technological change today means that what we learn as children is no longer useful 60 years later. And conversely, we older people are not fluent in the technologies essential for surviving in modern society. For example, as a 15-year-old, I was considered outstandingly good at multiplying numbers because I had memorized the multiplication tables and I know how to use logarithms and I'm quick at manipulating a slide rule. Today, though, those skills are utterly useless because any idiot can now multiply eight-digit numbers accurately and instantly with a pocket calculator. Conversely, I at age 75 am incompetent at skills essential for everyday life. My family's first TV set in 1948 had only three knobs that I quickly mastered: an on-off switch, a volume knob, and a channel selector knob. Today, just to watch a program on the TV set in my own house, I have to operate a 41-button TV remote that utterly defeats me. I have to telephone my 25-year-old sons and ask them to talk me through it while I try to push those wretched 41 buttons.
Šta je ono što se promenilo u statusu starijih danas u odnosu na njihov status u tradicionalnim društvima? Desilo se nekoliko promena na bolje i mnogo promena na gore. Velike promene na bolje uključuju činjenicu da danas uživamo u mnogo dužim životima, mnogo boljem zdravlju u poznom dobu i mnogo boljim mogućnostima za rekreaciju. Još jedna promena na bolje je da sada imamo specijalizovane ustanove za starije i programe koji se brinu za starije ljude. Promene na gore počinju sa surovom stvarnošću sa kojom se sada suočavamo - više starijih i manje mladih nego u bilo kom trenutku u prošlosti. To znači da su svi ti stariji ljudi veći teret manjem broju mladih ljudi i da svaka starija osoba nosi manju ličnu vrednost. Još jedna velika promena na gore u statusu starijih je prekidanje društvenih veza s godinama, jer se stariji ljudi, njihova deca i njihovi prijatelji svi sele i raspršuju nezavisno jedni od drugih mnogo puta tokom njihovih života. Amerikanci se sele prosečno svakih pet godina. Zbog toga će naši stariji sa velikom verovatnoćom završiti živeći daleko od svoje dece i prijatelja iz mladosti. Još jedna promena na gore u statusu starijih je zakonom određeno penzionisanje koje sa sobom nosi gubitak prijateljstava i gubitak samopouzdanja vezanog za rad. Možda najveća promena na gore je to što su naši stariji objektivno manje korisni nego u tradicionalnim društvima. Široko rasprostranjena pismenost znači da oni više nisu korisni kao skladišta znanja. Kada želimo neku informaciju, potražićemo je u knjizi ili na Guglu umesto da potražimo neku stariju osobu i pitamo je. Spori napredak tehnološkog razvoja u tradicionalnim društvima znači da je ono što neko nauči kao dete i dalje korisno kada ta osoba ostari, a brzi tok tehnološkog razvoja danas znači da ono što naučimo kao deca postaje beskorisno 60 godina kasnije. Kao posledica toga mi, stariji ljudi, ne poznajemo tehnologije neophodne za preživljavanje u modernom društvu. Na primer, kao petnaestogodišnjak bio sam izvanredno dobar u množenju, jer sam zapamtio tablice množenja i znam kako da koristim logaritme i brz sam u upotrebi logaritmara. Danas su, pak, te veštine potpuno nepotrebne, jer bilo koji idiot može da množi osmocifrene brojeve tačno i trenutno uz pomoć džepnog digitrona. Kao posledica toga, ja sa 75 sam nekompetentan u veštinama potrebnim za svakodnevni život. Prvi TV moje porodice 1948. imao je samo tri dugmeta za uključivanje i isključivanje, jačinu i odabir kanala. Danas, samo da bih odgledao program na televizoru u mojoj kući moram da rukujem daljinskim sa 41 dugmetom što me potpuno poražava. Moram da nazovem svoje 25-ogodišnje sinove i zamolim ih mi da mi pomognu dok pokušavam da ispritiskam tih 41 mizernih dugmića.
What can we do to improve the lives of the elderly in the U.S., and to make better use of their value? That's a huge problem. In my remaining four minutes today, I can offer just a few suggestions. One value of older people is that they are increasingly useful as grandparents for offering high-quality childcare to their grandchildren, if they choose to do it, as more young women enter the workforce and as fewer young parents of either gender stay home as full-time caretakers of their children. Compared to the usual alternatives of paid babysitters and day care centers, grandparents offer superior, motivated, experienced child care. They've already gained experience from raising their own children. They usually love their grandchildren, and are eager to spend time with them. Unlike other caregivers, grandparents don't quit their job because they found another job with higher pay looking after another baby. A second value of older people is paradoxically related to their loss of value as a result of changing world conditions and technology. At the same time, older people have gained in value today precisely because of their unique experience of living conditions that have now become rare because of rapid change, but that could come back. For example, only Americans now in their 70s or older today can remember the experience of living through a great depression, the experience of living through a world war, and agonizing whether or not dropping atomic bombs would be more horrible than the likely consequences of not dropping atomic bombs. Most of our current voters and politicians have no personal experience of any of those things, but millions of older Americans do. Unfortunately, all of those terrible situations could come back. Even if they don't come back, we have to be able to plan for them on the basis of the experience of what they were like. Older people have that experience. Younger people don't.
Šta možemo da učinimo da poboljšamo živote starijih u SAD i bolje iskoristimo njihove vrednosti? To je ogroman problem. U svoja preostala četiri minuta danas mogu da vam ponudim samo neke predloge. Jedna od vrednosti starijih je da su sve više i više korisni kao babe i dede nudeći visoko kvalitetnu brigu o deci svojim unucima, ako odaberu to da rade, pošto sve više mladih žena počinje da radi i sve manje mladih roditelja oba pola ostaje kod kuće da se stara o svojoj deci tokom čitavog dana. Poređeno sa uobičajenim alternativama plaćanja bejbi-sitera i obdaništa, babe i dede nude bolju, motivisanu brigu o deci, sa iskustvom. Oni su već stekli iskustvo odgajanjem sopstvene dece. U većini slučajeva oni vole svoje unuke i željni su da provode vreme s njima. Za razliku od drugih staratelja, babe i dede ne napuštaju svoj posao, jer su našli bolji, sa većom platom čuvajući neko drugo dete. Druga vrednost starijih je, paradoksalno, povezana sa gubitkom njihove vrednosti kao posledica promena u svetskim uslovima i tehnologiji. Istovremeno, stariji ljudi su dobili na vrednosti danas upravo zbog njihovog jedinstvenog iskustva u životnim uslovima koji su sada postali retki zbog brzine promena, ali koji bi se mogli vratiti. Na primer, samo Amerikanci koji su sada u svojim 70-im ili su stariji se danas sećaju iskustva življenja tokom velike depresije, iskustva života tokom svetskog rata, brige da li će ili neće atomska bomba biti gora nego posledica nebacanja atomskih bombi. Većina sadašnjih glasača i političara nemaju lično iskustvo u tim stvarima, ali milioni starijih Amerikanaca ga imaju. Nažalost, sve te užasne situacije bi mogle da se ponove. A čak i da se ne ponove, moramo da budemo sposobni da planiramo za njih na osnovu iskustva kakve su nekada bile. Stariji ljudi imaju to iskustvo. Mlađi ljudi nemaju.
The remaining value of older people that I'll mention involves recognizing that while there are many things that older people can no longer do, there are other things that they can do better than younger people. A challenge for society is to make use of those things that older people are better at doing. Some abilities, of course, decrease with age. Those include abilities at tasks requiring physical strength and stamina, ambition, and the power of novel reasoning in a circumscribed situation, such as figuring out the structure of DNA, best left to scientists under the age of 30. Conversely, valuable attributes that increase with age include experience, understanding of people and human relationships, ability to help other people without your own ego getting in the way, and interdisciplinary thinking about large databases, such as economics and comparative history, best left to scholars over the age of 60. Hence older people are much better than younger people at supervising, administering, advising, strategizing, teaching, synthesizing, and devising long-term plans. I've seen this value of older people with so many of my friends in their 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, who are still active as investment managers, farmers, lawyers and doctors. In short, many traditional societies make better use of their elderly and give their elderly more satisfying lives than we do in modern, big societies.
Vrednost starijih koju ću još spomenuti uključuje prepoznavanje da iako postoji mnogo stvari koje stariji više ne mogu da rade, postoje druge stvari koje mogu da rade bolje od mladih ljudi. Izazov za društvo je da iskoristi te stvari koje stariji bolje rade. Neke sposobnosti, naravno, nestaju godinama. One uključuju sposobnosti u zadacima koji zahtevaju fizičku snagu i izdržljivost, ambiciju i moć inovativnog razmišljanja u specifičnim situacijama, kao što je pronalaženje strukture DNK, što je najbolje prepustiti naučnicima ispod 30. Kao posledica toga, vredne osobine koje rastu sa godinama uključuju iskustvo, razumevanje ljudi i međuljudskih odnosa, sposobnost za pomaganje drugima bez uplitanja sopstvenog ega i interdisciplinarno razmišljanje o velikim bazama podataka kao što su ekonomija i komparativna istorija, što je bolje ostaviti stručnjacima preko 60. Zbog toga su stariji ljudi mnogo bolji od mlađih u nadgledanju, administraciji, savetovanju, osmišljanju strategija, podučavanju, sintezi i razvoju dugoročnih planova. Video sam ovu vrednost starijih ljudi u velikom broju svojih prijatelja u njihovim 60-im 70-im, 80-im i 90-im koji su i dalje aktivni kao investicioni menadžeri, poljoprivrednici, advokati i lekari. Ukratko, mnoga tradicionalna društva bolje iskorišćavaju starije i pružaju im ispunjenije živote nego što to mi činimo u modernim, velikim društvima.
Paradoxically nowadays, when we have more elderly people than ever before, living healthier lives and with better medical care than ever before, old age is in some respects more miserable than ever before. The lives of the elderly are widely recognized as constituting a disaster area of modern American society. We can surely do better by learning from the lives of the elderly in traditional societies. But what's true of the lives of the elderly in traditional societies is true of many other features of traditional societies as well. Of course, I'm not advocating that we all give up agriculture and metal tools and return to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. There are many obvious respects in which our lives today are far happier than those in small, traditional societies. To mention just a few examples, our lives are longer, materially much richer, and less plagued by violence than are the lives of people in traditional societies. But there are also things to be admired about people in traditional societies, and perhaps to be learned from them. Their lives are usually socially much richer than our lives, although materially poorer. Their children are more self-confident, more independent, and more socially skilled than are our children. They think more realistically about dangers than we do. They almost never die of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and the other noncommunicable diseases that will be the causes of death of almost all of us in this room today. Features of the modern lifestyle predispose us to those diseases, and features of the traditional lifestyle protect us against them.
Paradoksalno, danas kada imamo više starijih nego ikada pre koji žive zdravije živote sa boljom zdravstvenom negom nego ikada pre starost je u nekim pogledima bednija nego ikada pre. Životi starijih su naširoko prepoznati kao područja katastrofe u modernom američkom društvu. Sigurno možemo biti bolji ako učimo iz života starijih u tradicionalnim društvima. Ali ono što je istinito za živote starijih u tradicionalnim društvima je istinito i za druge osobine tradicionalnih društava. Naravno, nisam zagovornik napuštanja poljoprivrede i metalnih oruđa i vraćanja lovu i sakupljanju. Postoji mnogo očiglednih aspekata zbog kojih su naši životi danas daleko srećniji od onih u malim, tradicionalnim društvima. Napomenuo bih samo neke primere, naši životi su duži, materijalno znatno bogatiji i manje mučeni nasiljem nego životi ljudi u tradicionalnim društvima. Ali postoje i stvari kojima se treba diviti kod ljudi u tradicionalnim društvima i možda učiti iz njih. Njihovi životi su uglavnom značajno društveno bogatiji nego naši životi, iako materijalno siromašniji. Njihova deca imaju više samopouzdanja, nezavisnija su i imaju više socijalnih veština nego naša deca. Razmišljaju realističnije o opasnostima nego mi. Skoro nikada ne umiru od dijabetesa, srčanih oboljenja, šloga ili drugih nezaraznih bolesti, koje će biti uzrok smrti skoro svih nas u ovoj prostoriji danas. Osobine savremenog života nas predodređuju tim bolestima, a osobine tradicionalnih društava nas štite od njih.
Those are just some examples of what we can learn from traditional societies. I hope that you will find it as fascinating to read about traditional societies as I found it to live in those societies.
To su samo neki primeri toga šta možemo da naučimo od tradicionalnih društava. Nadam se da vam biti isto toliko zapanjujuće da čitate o tradicionalnim društvima kao što je meni bilo da živim među njima.
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)