Joe Biden will be a candidate for the White House at the age of 82, Warren Buffett is one of the great planetary investors at 92, the same age that one of the most feared financiers such as George Soros and a communications magnate such as Rupert Murdoch have. Pope Francis is 85, Nancy Pelosi was Speaker of the House of Representatives until she was 83 and, in case we still had doubts that age doesn’t matter, just look at Harrison Ford at 80, playing the role of Indiana Jones in El dial del destÃ, premiered on Thursday at the Cannes festival. Ageism is dead, or at least in worse health than gerontocracy.
The increase in life expectancy and confidence that white hair causes in many population groups is allowing it to not be so great to be young, as an old El Corte Inglés slogan proclaimed. Or, at least, that age is less of a barrier than in other times.
When during the last pandemic we saw in the Community of Madrid how old age was an element of discrimination to access hospitals, it left us very touched. Checking that people in their 80s or 90s have positions of responsibility and contribute their experience is the best denunciation of this malpractice.
And it should also be a factor for reflection in France, where increasing the retirement age from 62 to 64 years has served to set fire to the streets of Paris again, when the pension fund is emptied with the increase in life expectancy Not all professions are equal or require the same effort, but talent is certainly often lost to early retirements.
Indy appears in the film alone, a little destitute and unarmed, but he is surely a little wiser. In the meeting with the press, Harrison Ford said that the real heroes of our time are the old. And when they surprised him with an honorary Palme d’Or, he was moved and burst into tears. Time makes us more sensitive. For a moment, the actor was seen as a bit clumsy, like Indiana Jones. But mostly dignified, as Harrison Ford has always been.
