FVO X: “I’m Too Old to be Worrying about Politics”*

In my work for Interactivity Foundation (IF) over the past 16-plus years, I’ve often heard seniors say something like this:

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I used to discuss politics quite often when I was younger, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve mostly given up. I’m still interested. But I don’t think I could keep up my end of the discussion.

Here again, while I can understand what might lead someone to feel this way, there’s plenty of evidence showing that seniors can both contribute to and benefit from civil discussions.

At IF, we frequently conduct discussions with 70- and 80-year olds.   (A spry 102-year old I knew once told me that even a bad fall wouldn’t keep her from attending her discussion series.)  We have noticed no significant or systematic barriers to their participation.  Indeed, healthy seniors are generally able to draw on a depth of experience that is simply unavailable to younger participants.

As for the benefits, most seniors tell us that IF discussions are enjoyable and informative. The reason they do is that IF’s discussions—like most forms of civil discussion—offer intellectual stimulation and social interaction in addition to “citizen self-education”—benefits that seniors perhaps appreciate even more than younger participants.

Civil discussions cannot proceed without openness.  Surely that includes openness to our elders, a group who will both enrich and be enriched by them.

*Adapted from Adolf G. Gundersen and Suzanne Goodney Lea, Let’s Talk Politics: Restoring Civility Through Exploratory Discussion, Chapter 3.