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The Lonely End: in aging Japan, thousands die alone and unnoticed

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Re: The Lonely End: in aging Japan, thousands die alone and unnoticed

#91

Post by mirimir »

justifier wrote: post #50

is this a causation correlation issue of generations? could i die alone without any great effort to do so having grown up on the internet? i have seen promotional material for teaching seniors computer skills.. and there seem to be so many similar services and efforts that a search was unable to lead me to the specific video.. the internet is filled with a mess of stuff but within there are many communities covering…

I didn't grow up on the Internet, but I have gotten a lot older on it. I'm married and social, so I probably won't die alone, unless I flee and hide ;) But it's clearly much easier to meet people online who share my interests.

Re: The Lonely End: in aging Japan, thousands die alone and unnoticed

#92

Post by cousin_it »

That's a big problem with technological progress. It fulfills more and more of our needs, making it harder and harder to fulfill our need to be needed. Sure, you can give everyone basic income and robot caretakers, but people who aren't needed by other people will still suffer. I would much prefer it if society somehow changed itself to want and need all of its members, not just the young productive desirable ones. That's a kind of utopia I've never read about, it just kind of crystallized in my mind after years of thinking about this.

Re: The Lonely End: in aging Japan, thousands die alone and unnoticed

#93

Post by DanBC »

codesushi42 wrote: post #78
taternuts wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To some that question is the same as "Why don't you plan on being a billionaire?"

Getting married is easy. And plenty of people don't want it. :) You'd be hard pressed to find a person who doesn't want to be a billionaire. Try online dating, or go to a bar to meet a girl. It's a lot easier than you think, especially when you're gainfully employed.

This is a little bit like telling someone with a phobia of spiders to just stop being scared of spiders.

Re: The Lonely End: in aging Japan, thousands die alone and unnoticed

#94

Post by Turing_Machine »

ekianjo wrote: post #30
FrankenPC wrote: post #16

In my mind I see this as a social health crisis. The elderly provide an unbelievable amount of wisdom to the next generation. By abandoning them, we abandon our children's future. I think of the elderly as an essential vitamin for children. They impart valuable social memes and at the same time tell the children, by there mere existence in their lives, that we value our family and when the children's time comes to ag…

> The elderly provide an unbelievable amount of wisdom Sorry, no. It's not because you grow grey hair that you get gifted wisdom or anything. There's a bunch of older people who are actually assholes, too. Getting old does not make your into a Saint.

Assholishness and wisdom seem to be orthogonal to me. Most of us could probably name a dozen famous people off the tops of our heads who were both wise and unpleasant (most famously, Isaac Newton... arguably in the running for the smartest person who ever lived, but kind of a dick in his interpersonal relationships).

Old people have survived, which represents a first cut against doing foolish things, ranging from driving too fast to smoking to getting in bar fights. Barring cognitive decline, it makes perfect sense that older people should be, on average, more wise than younger ones. Plus some people do actually manage to learn a few things over the course of their lives. :-)

Re: The Lonely End: in aging Japan, thousands die alone and unnoticed

#95

Post by Turing_Machine »

Klinky wrote: post #45
Spooky23 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Society is bizarre in innumerable ways. The number of people who I know that have contempt for children or people having children is repugnant to me. I think the disdain for the young and old is a sign of decadence.

What kind of mental gymnastics are involved in portraying the people who aren't sinking $200K into a child as decadent?

Charles Darwin could probably explain it. :-)

Re: The Lonely End: in aging Japan, thousands die alone and unnoticed

#97

Post by TJSomething »

icebraining wrote: post #11
no1youknowz wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand it either. Why is it frightening? I also didn't quite understand the family comment either. Whose family are you talking about? When you are born, you have your mom (and possibly Dad) around you. But as you grow older, Mom and Dad will pass away and you'll thus be alone. Unless you have kids, you'll die alone. Even if you do have kids, life happens. I know plenty of people who don't talk to their k…

I think some people have this fantasy, that they are on their death bed and there is 3 generations weeping around them. Sorry, but is this even true any more? Well, at least here in my Southern European country, it sure is. While there are many more elderly people dying alone than a couple of decades ago, I'd say most people I know still keep in close contact with their parents and grandparents, and they spend their…

America's a pretty big country. You can drive the 400 miles from where my grandmother lives to where my parents live and the largest city during that drive has a population of fewer than 4,000 people.

Re: The Lonely End: in aging Japan, thousands die alone and unnoticed

#98

Post by [deleted] »

civilian wrote: post #9

> His epiphany came when his current partner told him how she had lost her grandmother. Unlike Koremura’s loss, her grandmother had died alone—a kodokushi. It was seeing the deep regret in her, and accepting his own ennui, that made Koremura finally take action. He left his job as a stockbroker and set up his own removal company dedicated to the cleanup of kodokushi victims. He wanted to give something back to the ge…

[deleted]

Re: The Lonely End: in aging Japan, thousands die alone and unnoticed

#99

Post by SomeStupidPoint »

jackvalentine wrote: post #44
lani wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about a startup where one can dial a 1-800 number from Japan and get someone in ,say, Europe, who is also bored, and the two can rant to each other about how bad things are , and then go back to their lives ? International PainBuddy program, Dial-An-Agony . 1800-call-pain !! Best part, we pay a couple of life coaches to analyse some rants and provide anonymous advice

I was going to comment that you'd have language issues but then I realised, most people who want to vent don't actually need to be understood they just need to get it out. Good idea!

It might actually work better if a European makes soothing noises and a Japanese person makes soothing noises at a European in exchange, without either side knowing what the topic is.

Re: The Lonely End: in aging Japan, thousands die alone and unnoticed

#100

Post by anovikov »

DanBC wrote: post #93
codesushi42 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting married is easy. And plenty of people don't want it. :) You'd be hard pressed to find a person who doesn't want to be a billionaire. Try online dating, or go to a bar to meet a girl. It's a lot easier than you think, especially when you're gainfully employed.

This is a little bit like telling someone with a phobia of spiders to just stop being scared of spiders.

In Slavic countries, men have to struggle with the opposite: how to avoid marriage at all costs.
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