Iva Apostolova – Monique Lanoix (eds.), Aging in an Aging Society. Critical Reflections. Sheffield UK – Bristol CT, Equinox, 2019, 15,5 × 23,2 cm, viii-213 p., ISBN 978-1-781179-690-0

When Iva Apostolova and Monique Lanoix organized the conference, Building Hospitable Communities for Aging in 2016, they could hardly have anticipated the events which would underscore the significance of this work to the public dialogue. In 2020, COVID-19 became that event. Those who were the first and hardest hit by COVID-19 were the aging and elderly. The reasons for this go beyond medical frailty but rather are reflective of the systemic and on-going under appreciation for the conditions within long-term care facilities. In the first 8 months of the pandemic, 80% of all fatalities were from long-term-care facilities. In some facilities, 80% of their residents succumbed to the disease. In an astounding admission of defeat, the Governments of Ontario and Quebec called upon the Canadian Armed Forces to assist them in a dealing with this man-made disaster. The report by 4th Division Commander, BGen Conrad Mailkowski was scathing in its condemnation of the mismanagement and incompetence under which these facilities operated. As shocking as these facts are, Aging in an Aging Society, demonstrates that not only is this unsurprising, it was inevitable and destined to be repeated unless we re-imagine our relationship with aging. Years before COVID-19 became a household acronym, Aging in an Aging Society attempted to do that very thing by exploring our understanding of our own aging, societies; relationship with aging, and the impact these factors have on how society cares for the aged. In its simplest form, aging is our reward for not dying young. Despite this logic, we collectively have a hard time understanding aging. Aging in an Aging Society, takes a systematic approach to understanding both the challenges to aging and, more importantly, our failure to appreciate these challenges. In what follows, I will explore the themes offered by various contributors to Aging in an Aging Society who explore obstacles to our appreciation of aging. We will never appreciate aging as a society until we appreciate aging individually. While what will follow is elementary, it remains stubbornly elusive. What the authors do is uncover why and how we collectively dispense with the fact that we are all, as Dickens noted, “fellow passengers to the grave.” To contextualize our relationship with our own aging, Iva Apostolova and Elaina Gauthier-Mamaril enlist the writings of Baruch Spinoza (1632 – 1677) in The Otherness Within: Reframing, with Spinoza, the Self’s Relationship to Disability and Aging. Where the authors are prudent to point out that Spinoza’s writing does not relate specifically to aging, they do draw from his arguments factors that have had a tremendous influence on our understanding of it. By exploring Spinoza’s worldview, Apostolova and Mamaril explore how these fundamental views obstruct a comprehensive and mature understanding of aging. As the authors point out, Spinoza’s is a philosophy of life where meaning is derived from the affects one achieves. Stated otherwise, we gain meaning in life from what we do and the effects we achieve. However, this relatable metric of progress and contribution does not encompass the entirety of one’s life and glorifies the athletes die young. If, as Spinoza suggests, the value of one’s life is proportionate to the effects one achieves, then the corollary is that as one ages, one life has diminishing returns. This has a dangerous connotation that foreshadows the destructive measure of human value of the Industrial Revolution. The authors cleverly point out that the influence of these ideas have had and continue to have a significant impact on our relationship with our own aging. If we are conditioned to believe that our value is contingent on our contribution …