By Judie Brown
(Part 9 in our Cancel Culture series)
No, aging community, the cancel culture does not want to enlist your wisdom and guidance; it wants you to die and get out of the way! Why? Because the cancel culture is all about ostracism, banishment, and exclusion. This attitude takes many forms, in both word and deed. And some of these are deadly. If that sounds harsh, then you do not understand what the culture of death—which is really the true nature of the cancel culture—is all about.
Ever since I began this series, I have thought that the term “cancel culture” was a bit devious, especially as I know that the elite in our society are constantly devising new ways to say dumb things. But then it occurred to me that the term was actually a smoke screen for not-so-humane aspirations on the part of those orchestrating the culture into a new way of looking at things.
Ask yourself, what does it mean to cancel someone or some concept that those in charge erroneously view as bad or unwanted? Well, in the cancel culture, the underlying goal is to get rid of those things (read people) that cause others “discomfort” or “inconvenience.” Sadly, that includes babies before birth, the elderly, the ill, and the infirm. After all, what has already been canceled is respect for human dignity.
And it does not end there.
Archbishop Carlo Vigano shares another tactic of the cancel culture: sowing fear: “A flu syndrome, which according to official data causes almost the same number of deaths among the elderly and weak people as any other normal seasonal flu, has been used as a pretext to sow terror amidst the population, thanks to the complicity of politicians, the media, doctors, and law enforcement.”
It is this fear that drives many older Americans to not only have thoughts of taking their own lives but to suffer anguish due to loneliness and neglect. But you need not take my word for it. Just read what the proponents of assisting someone to die have to say.
The organization Death with Dignity tells visitors to its website: “Death with dignity laws, also known as physician-assisted dying or aid-in-dying laws, stem from the basic idea that it is the terminally ill people, not government and its interference, politicians and their ideology, or religious leaders and their dogma, who should make their end-of-life decisions and determine how much pain and suffering they should endure.”
A careful reading of these words exposes the agenda of those who are proponents of imposed death. Apparently, it is much more efficient to convince an older person who is ill or facing death that only he should decide when to die. By harping on the senior’s personal autonomy, these proponents of death eliminate any hope for miraculous cures, additional time with loved ones, or the possibility of praying to God for the grace to die a happy death. Whenever an organization dismisses faith in our Father as mere dogma, only bad things will happen.
Contrast that dismal assessment from the proponents of imposed death with those of physicians like T. Brian Callister, MD, FACP, SFHM, who recently enumerated seven reasons to oppose physician-assisted suicide, pointing out that physicians do not do well in predicting life expectancy. In fact, he wrote that “the medical literature shows the average margin of error is 50 to 70 percent. Assisted suicide, like hospice, requires a physician to ‘certify’ six months or less to live. Physicians are frequently wrong—we put people on hospice all the time, and we take them off all the time, after they have outlived their prognosis. Patients often live months and even years longer than we thought with a good quality of life.”
Quite simply, the bottom line is that far too many in senior healthcare—also known as geriatric medicine—are wooed into believing that it is perfectly fine to play God with the lives of vulnerable people. This is why those who are elderly, as well as those who care about them, must be ever vigilant. And this is why we must work hard to protect them.
As Susan Ciancio, editor of ALL’s Celebrate Life Magazine, tells readers: “Now more than ever, we must see Christ in others. Now more than ever, we must come together as a country and protect the vulnerable. Now more than ever, we must teach our children the sanctity of life.”
In other words, as we strive to end the cultural fascination with canceling out entire groups of people like preborn babies and our beloved seniors, we need now more than ever to keep our eyes on Christ.
The family is the place where, whenever possible, the care and love for the aging should take place. Nobody can replace the loving embrace of a child or grandchild, and no replacement—especially not the state—can give unselfishly in times of illness and frailty.
It is quite clear in our society today that the cancel culture is out to get grandparents, but it is equally obvious that, where there is love of God and faith in His will, the family can protect, care for, and defend Grandma and Grandpa.
Read more in this series: Cancel Culture