Disrespecting the Elderly: Betting on Death

Each year more and more people become elderly. The Baby Boomer Generation has been aging and there is an ever increasing number of elderly in society. Youth is highly valued in our society as evident with everyone always trying to look as young as possible whether it be skin care products or plastic surgery or dressing a certain way we are all guilty of it.

However, what has caused me to pose this question is a single website.
There is a website based in the United Kingdom that is called The premise is that 50 older celebrities, politicians and writers are selected each year to be placed on a list. People then bet on who they think will die within the end of the calender year.

The 2007 Deathlist features such figures as Fidel Castro, Ariel Sharon, Kirk Douglas, JD Salinger, Betty Ford and Jerry Lewis.
The whole idea is to bet on the public figures that will die during the year. This site doesnt honor the memory of some famous figures, but instead capitalizes on their passing.

To me this seems to be a disrespect to the elderly and aging population. The whole site takes away from the passing of these people. Death really isnt fun and this site treats death like some sort of twisted game.

I dont think its right to mess around with death in this way. For example the moderator of DeathList is an ominous Grim Reaper who occasionally posts questions on forums on the site that in general callously treats the conditions of these elderly people. Think of how it would feel to be an elderly person who was a celebrity and see your name on DeathList and see people begging for you to die so they can bet on it.

Isnt there something wrong with that?
Some of the site is designed to be humorous but I think the general premise is fairly disgusting. The whole idea of the list dehumanizes these elderly people because it only presents their achievement in a short 2 or 3 word blurb.

Death is a taboo people shouldnt mess with when you treat death like a game.
I think this site highlights a general feeling held by the younger part of society that doesnt respect the elderly and is frequently impatient with these people. Society is very youth oriented.

Ageism or discrimination against a person of a specific age is not uncommon among the elderly simply because many companies want to be seen as innovative and fresh and having a high number of older people wouldnt have as positive of an image. Their is a lot of discrimination and maltreatment of the elderly and I think those striving for progress should take more time to advocate better treatment of the elderly.
But I would like to know what everyone else out in ProgressiveU thinks.

What can be done to prevent age discrimination against the elderly? Do the Youth disrespect the elderly too much?

I can't even relate to this sort of site.
My (other) sister is a journalist, and she's interested in the death of certain notables because, frankly, that's what makes the news. But for her, celebrity death isn't so much a novelty as it is news-- like when Pope John Paul II was in and out of surgery, it was current news to discuss/joke whether or not he would ever improve.

But this site is a bit different than that.
Maybe it's a British thing.

Part of this site I can see, is definitely about poking fun at these celebrities and well known leaders. If you look at the descriptions of some of these people some are really funny.
I just dont think people should mess with this stuff.

If I ever became famous I would hate to be put on a Geezer List like this and have people anticipate my departure up to the great Pearly Gates.

While I totally agree that celebrities are human (except Kathi Lee Gifford in that one South Park episode, or the guys from Queer Eye in that other episode, or Rosie O'Donnell, or Jennifer Lopez.

.. you get the point), there's a whole aura of unapproachability that makes them the easiest people on the planet to gossip about.

They're on this pedestal, you see, and since we can't even hope to afford the same number of bedrooms in their houses or minimum number of backup dancers or grams of coke (kidding, sort of).
It sucks to disrespect humans that much, but at the same time celebrities are so far out of our league, they don't even care anymore about most of the gossip. It's the capitalist aristocracy.

I'm amazed that the United Kingdom actually has something like this in place, and for twenty years going to boot! The UK is generally much more into preaching tolerance than Freedom of Speech, so this shocks me.

But to answer your questions, while I don't go out of my way to disrespect the elderly, and certainly would never make a game out of death (either someone else's or my own) I've never believed that someone deserves my respect for the simple fact of them having been here on Earth longer. However, I will grant you that most of the people on that list probably do deserve a lot more respect than they seem to be getting for the simple fact that they have worked and have made something of themselves. I would be interested to hear what some of the people that have been listed on the site have to say about it.

As far as ageism, I'm not sure what else can be done. It's just like racism: it's disgusting when you see it, but it's not against the law.
"Dream as though you'll live forever, but live as though there's no tomorrow" --James Dean

Now, if I were on this list, and knew I was going to die within the year, I would anonymously bet on myself and get people to bet LOTS of money so I could pass off the money I would get to my grandkids. That way, I will have left my final mark on this world..

.by stealing the bastards' money and giving it to my family so they'll be well off.
Hehe, that sounds like a great story when my grandkids ask their parents where the money came from.

"Well, there was this website...

"

Suing people causes way too much stress for anyone, especially the elderly. I think it would be much more productive and, dare I say it, fun to just screw the betters out of their money.

"What the hell are you waiting for?" Linkin Park-Jay Z
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