Elder Abuse – the new suicide
As the numbers climbed in the suicide statistics, the information dried up, the the system shut up, the media was gaged under the pretext that talking about the issue would cause copycat fatalities and unnecessary deaths, and for decades a few – at least a few us – fought against a determined administration that did not want to confront the issue … and when we did start to open the discussion there was a determined effort and the political will to find some advantage for women, and divert the funding sources away from the most affected male group of fatalities.
I am sure most readers will be aware of the numbers of aged we have now as a result of the post war baby boom years (1945 to the mid 1960s) that often feature in retirement-age discussions. Recently we have seen the sharp end of the ‘Elder Abuse’ issue through court cases featuring neglect and financial misappropriation by family members.
Am I the only one that notices when you flick through a magazine article that paticular mention is made of the abuse being at the hands of family members?
My thoughts head in the direction, not of secrecy as such, that we have seen with suicide, but selective release of information and also what qualifies as elder abuse.
The discussion has been broached on Menz before in the form of boarding houses and low cost accommodation for abandoned males. Remembering for a moment the quantities of work and financial support that many men have provided during their life that is perhaps unrecognised because of their removal from the their family at some stage in their life.
It becomes convenient not to recognise this now in the context of elder abuse as the culprit is the state or the funding mechanism and legal system responsible.
Most importantly the issue is not one that will resolve itself or promote itself without a fight from men. There will be an increasing number of men who fall under some convenient political label that disguises the fact the administration has had a major role in the final outcome of many men’s lives.
This is something that may come as a suprise to some menz readers;
This story on Stuff News is currently top of their most viewed list.
And you may think this is just coincidence.
However if you’ve been playing the game for while, you would be aware that when a bit of a story appears on Menz, rather than a whole lot of other stuff, female based counter stories like the one above turn up in mainstream media, sometimes within hours.
Just something you could add to your thinking for a Sunday.
Comment by Downunder — Sun 10th December 2017 @ 8:57 am
There’s another game in feminist media that is just as insidious.
If a fella is getting stomped on, especially by an individual in a government department, and he does find some help, and the nasty story needs to be aired in the media, the person who did the stomping will be left out, and the story will be written up to make it look like people who fixed it up were the ones that caused the problem in the first place, but it’s left to assumption.
When the media cooperates in this sort undermining of accountability and decency you can imagine what people can get away with, get a pat on the back, and look smug about the last guy they nailed.
Comment by Downunder — Sun 10th December 2017 @ 9:53 am
Ignorant politicians and historically naive children are a unfortunate combination of elder abuse.
We saw a good example of this in the recent election when the young Green brigade were circulating post war 1950s pamphlets about how women should look after men.
This was used as an example of the patriarchal enslavery of women in New Zealand.
What was conveniently ignored was that the Second World War did not end for New Zealand on VE Day. That was victory in Europe. We were still suffering casualties from the Pacific theatre of war up to 1950.
Many returning troops went straight from war to work rebuilding a country, crippled not by war but by the absence of men. Long hard days of manual labour in a country that at best had been able to scrounge a bit of second hand American machinery during the European crisis.
Unless you grew up with veterans around it is hard to understand the depth of physical and mental injury that had to be dealt with.
The pamphlets were probably the nicest way to say the RSA can only do its bit and will have to help without acknowledging the depth of what was being dealt with at the time.
It that respect its probably surprising that ANZAC Day has outlived Father’s Day. But if you think about it, that probably says everything about our politicians.
Comment by Evan Myers — Sun 10th December 2017 @ 12:35 pm