Ageing activism: why we need to give voice to the new third age

Ageing is capturing the attention of the Western World, but not in a good way. The doubling of the ageing population is often referred to as the grey tsunami and all that is implied by that metaphor – destruction and devastation.
This wave of ageing is typically underpinned by two dominant discourses. One is associated with the exciting possibilities associated with healthy ageing. The other focuses on decline and discrimination.
It is not hard to see why many people want to focus on healthy ageing and secretly hope the decline happens to someone else. The Conversation