Changes in the demographics of Central Europe are placing a significant strain on society.
The first wave of people born between 1950 and 1972 are now retiring or have already done so. Not all of them are in good health, which means the costs of caring for the older generation are already rising enormously. In Germany, for example, the costs have nearly doubled from €42.43 billion to €82.40 billion between 2013 and 2023. We can estimate this will peak in 2026, when the 1951 cohort reaches the age of 75 and illnesses become more prevalent. As uncertain as predictions are, it is certain that healthcare costs will rise.
One Injustice Is Enough
How will we support this financially? The real question underlying this is how the elderly will relate to the younger generations. Does the “generation that has grown wise” now want to find a balance with the younger generations, or do the old simply want to make demands? In my article on the coronavirus crisis,1 I mentioned how the entire society experienced a democratic majority of older people taking the lead and, through their demand for protection, ensuring that school closures and similar measures were introduced, all at the expense of young people. In hindsight, this was a nearly irreparable mistake in political decision-making. It would be difficult to ever enact a more heinous injustice. And it’s important to note that we have twenty years ahead of us until 2045, when demographic conditions will gradually balance out again. By that time, those who will be taking on positions of responsibility will be precisely those who were hindered or even harmed by this injustice.
That is why I now pose these questions to us older folk (including myself): What can we do to support this change in our community? What do we expect the state and society to do for us? Do we all know what’s coming? How can we handle this responsibly with regard for ourselves and society? Have we prepared a legal living will? Should, perhaps, everyone be required to do so upon retirement? Are we taking care of ourselves as best we can so that we remain independent of support as long as possible? But these are merely the technocratic questions.
Let Us Learn to Bless
Looking beyond the social situation, we must consider the truly personal aspect. How can an older person actually become a help to the young? It’s often said that old people give advice to young people. On one hand, I find this a bit presumptuous, and on the other, it’s doubtful whether it’s really wanted at all. Every person has the right to make their own mistakes. So, what do we really mean by “giving advice?” It means conversation. What do we have that we can give to younger people? Support, loving support. We can affirm their search for their own path and encourage them to try by saying, “Whatever you do, you have my blessing.” This builds trust with young people, trust in their paths and experiences, which we can’t change anyway and shouldn’t try to. If older people are able to develop this beneficial inner disposition, and young people turn to it, then a kind of “spiritual happiness” may arise in us both, because both will experience a deep sense of meaning.
To put it more profoundly: How is it possible for an old person to bless a young person? Is it a question of courage? Is it presumptuous? Is this a task, perhaps, a very important one? What do we see in old paintings by Rembrandt, for example, where Jacob gives his blessing to his grandchildren?2 (Note that this is one of Rembrandt’s “mature” works.) Can we not do the same today? Rudolf Steiner mentioned the importance of learning to pray as a child in order to be able to give a blessing as an adult.3 It all depends on whether an older person has a rich store of the experience of freedom and a deep love for all that is human, because this experience leads to the insight that freedom is not abstract; it’s a capacity that grows in the human ‘I’ and develops along with the power of love.
Once we consider this, it’s clear that a young person will be given the strength to stand firm in earthly life when they are supported by and given this freedom. Certain conceptions of freedom that merely call for the right to freedom and limit the scope of action to purely egoistic satisfaction prove themselves to be fruitless with regard to supporting and offering a blessing to others. We elders may adopt the following maxim: I give freedom out of the insight I’ve gained, so that the freedom I give to support another comes from the freedom I gained through knowledge. It can be argued that a healthy ‘I’ is needed on both sides for this giving and receiving to be successful. But who decides what is a healthy ‘I’? How should we accompany someone who bears a destiny that involves a soul injury? Accompaniment and support are not always easy, but they are always a blessing.
We older people are facing a new phase of social life. It will require of us that we show forbearance, gratitude, and kindness. After all, even if we’re confined to a bed, we can still talk with younger people about things that may be a support to them and help in the arduous practice of learning to be charitable. These practices are clearly valuable in themselves. But the value only comes to blossom when what we give is in keeping with what is given to us.
Translation Joshua Kelberman
Photo Sergiu Vălenaș, Unsplash
Footnotes
- Christian Schikarski, “Pandemie: eine menschheitliche Bedrohung” [Pandemic: A threat to humanity], Anthroposophie, no. 295 (Ostern 2021).
- Rembrandt van Rijn, Der Jakobssegen [The Blessing of Jacob], 1656, oil on canvas, Old Masters Picture Gallery, Wilhelmshöhe Palace, Kassel, Germany.
- Rudolf Steiner, The Christ Impulse and the Development of Ego-Consciousness, CW 116 (Forest Row, East Sussex: Rudolf Steiner Press, 2015), lecture in Berlin on Dec. 22, 1909.
