Can a world-wide revolution take place, and we not know it? In the previous century, that actually happened before our very eyes.
We think of revolutions as involving soldiers in the streets and great turmoil in the cities. That’s what the takeover of the Russian government was like in 1917 when the Bolsheviks overthrew the Czar.
But the 20th century produced another kind of revolution, one that silently produced unprecedented change. I refer to the longevity revolution that featured a stupendous growth in life expectancy in the United States and many other countries.
During those one hundred years, the average length of life increased by close to thirty years. Life expectancy from birth climbed from about 49 to approximately 77 and half years. Nothing on this scale had ever occurred in the history of the world.
It amazes me how little attention is paid to the great increase in life expectancy during the 20th century, either in public discourse or in private conversation. Seeing people who live into their 90s or past 100 has become so routine that we hardly take notice of it.
But the late Dr. Robert Butler did notice. A New York-based geriatrician-gerontologist, he was so fascinated by this 20th century phenomenon that he continued to write books and articles about it. In the last ten years of his life he founded and ran the International Longevity Center in New York City, in part to spread the word about what had happened.
I regard myself as a beneficiary of the great longevity revolution. Already, I have outlived my father by 26 years, thanks to a large number of influences that have touched my life. Incidentally, the disease of which he died, stomach ulcers, is one that current medicine deals with successfully and almost routinely.
Like so many of my family members and friends I have benefited from numerous improvements in public health measures. Clean water, disease-free food, safe shelter, and countless benefits have preserved my life, and the lives of millions of others.
In addition, individual health care has responded well when various infections, accidents, and other dangers have threatened my physical and mental security. Doctors and other medical personnel, for the most part, have responded appropriately to my malaises and deserve credit for the years I have attained.
Luck plays a large role in self-preservation, of course. So far, I have escaped drowning, or catastrophic falls, or the ever-present menace of cell-phoning drivers. Somehow, I have escaped these hazards and have continued living into my 80s. Still, I do not take this extension of life lightly. It comes as what I consider a gift, a precious one for which I feel blessed.
Incidentally, given this spectacular rise in age, it remains surprising that no person has lately broken through the record for life span. That distinction still belongs to the sharp-witted French woman, Jeanne Calment, who lived until age 122, and died in 1997.
Some scientists believe that the human family will, in the fairly near future, break Madame Calment’s longevity barrier. The most enthusiastic researchers expect an extension of life in this century to 150 years or even more.
Their claims leave me skeptical, however, perhaps because I fear that such an expansion of the life spans could produce virtually insurmountable problems. Think of the chaos that such extreme longevity would bring to society. Can you imagine what it would be like to provide adequate care for thousands of 150-year-olds? Or what levels of improvements in geriatric health would be required to assure those centenarians-and-a-half even a moderate level of well-being?
A much more reasonable ideal would be to increase the chances of living into one’s 90s in good mental and physical health. Most older people I know would settle for this and regard it as a bargain.
Because most of us aged people do not keep in mind how great a leap we have made over the age averages of our grandparents, we fail to feel awe at our status. Instead of celebrating our longevity, we tend to see it as routine.
“We are beginning to see the entire life cycle unfolding for the first time in recorded history,” Dr. Butler wrote in his book The Longevity Revolution. He also observes that over half of Americans aged 85 and older now report no significant physical disability, a marked change from the past.
This statistic would never have seemed routine to our ancestors and, I suggest, if we look upon it with awe, our appreciation of our own life may grow.
Surely our society will experience changes it is not yet ready for. To quote Dr. Butler once more: “The Longevity Revolution is a great intellectual, social as well as medical achievement and an opportunity that demands changes in our outmoded mind-sets, attitudes, and socioeconomic arrangements.”