Biden Steps Down: Ageism, Anxiety, Antagonism, and Grace

Source: Adobe stock image by 1STunningART, licensed by Ravi Chandra

Update: This post sparked a podcast conversation with Iliana Kerzner, host of "It's Not Therapy!" Listen in at Ageism - Why You Should Care At Any Age - Apple Podcasts and Podbean.

Last week, after the assassination attempt on former President Trump, I saw a meme: “Gen Z experiences its 147^thworld-historic event in real-time.”

Yes, it’s been an eventful time in American history, capped most recently by President Biden’s decision to withdraw from the presidential campaign. And while Gen Z might have had a tumultuous experience over the last two decades, I'd argue that what Biden experienced tells us a lot about our shared humanity, from the most difficult truths to how we might handle them.

Late last night I posted this on Facebook:

“A final thought before I go to bed. The one thing you can’t be in America is old. In the end, they treated him like a malfunctioning thing, not a human being at all. A person with feelings and character. A person who gave his all for public service. Who bore unspeakable tragedy and grief, and came back with grace. No, he wasn’t perfect. But this? This was cold. And moneyed. Love and grief. Of course I support Kamala. But I need a moment too. Maybe no news this week? All the knives in full display. It was sickening.”

The vast majority of my friends agreed, though there were a few who mentioned Gaza, Anita Hill, and their impression that Biden was in decline, so this needed to happen. But I am not here to judge him by what I and others think were his worst moments, or laud him for what I see as his many great moments and achievements. I’m just a human being, noticing what happened, and what happened very quickly, after he had a bad debate night on June 27.

Ageism Around the World

We all grow old, if we’re lucky. We may age differently, but America is not exactly kind to its elderly. Subjectively, a friend noted that he had been shunned as he aged. The World Health Organization states:

“Age is one of the first things we notice about other people. However, age is often used to categorize and divide people in ways that lead to harm, disadvantage and injustice and erode solidarity across generations. This is ageism: the stereotypes (how we think), prejudice (how we feel) and discrimination (how we act) towards others or ourselves based on age.”

In 2021, Ng and Lim-Soh surveyed web news sources in 20 countries where English is widely used. Using 1.75 billion words from a single year, they compiled the top 300 words that co-occurred with the terms “aged,” “elderly,” or “old people.” Ageism was rated by whether these co-occurring words indicated positive and negative stereotypes.

The only countries that had more positive age stereotypes were Sri Lanka, Ghana, and Tanzania. The other 17 countries tended to view age negatively, with the UK rated the most negative, and India, Bangladesh, Canada, the U.S., and Kenya essentially tied for the next most negative.

The UK ranked highest in ageism, with the US near the worst as well, while Sri Lanka the lowest.

Source: Figure from Ng and Lim-Soh's paper, see references.

They also concluded that “higher levels of masculinity and long-term orientation are associated with ageism, controlling for other cultural dimensions (‘Power Distance, Collectivism, Uncertainty Avoidance’), demographics (size and speed of aging), and economics (GDP-per-capita).”

Masculinity is a marker for the emphasis placed on “toughness,” physicality, competition, and career achievement, vs. “tenderness,” (considered “feminine”). In this culture, I've sometimes cynically noted that no one notices you until they disagree with you, or you disappoint or disobey. Then they attack. This isn't actually the majority of experience, but it's the kind of experience that is really traumatizing and sticks around in one's head.

Long-term orientation is a marker for the emphasis placed on delaying gratification, and thus investment in the young and devaluation of the old, who have less of a long-term payoff for society in purely economic terms. The authors note that per their other studies, ageism has increased over the last 200 years. Both the WHO and Ng and Lim-Soh recommended societal-level interventions to change attitudes about the elderly. (I hope this can be considered my small contribution to that goal.)

Anxiety Can Provoke Antagonism and Cloud Objectivity

Whatever you think about Biden’s cognition, it doesn’t appear that he was asked to do a comprehensive neuropsychiatric exam assessing cognition, character, and leadership qualities. Instead, it appears that a “power player layer” of media outlets, party elites, celebrities (such as George Clooney and all the late-night talk show hosts), and mega-donors were overcome with anxiety following his June 27, 2024 debate performance.

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The majority of the public had indeed expressed significant qualms about the ages of both presidential candidates, and a somewhat higher percentage said Biden rather than Trump was too old to be president. So this anxiety and disaffection had been present. But after the debate performance, “phones were blowing up,” per some journalists.

As a psychiatrist, I’m quite familiar with how challenging emotions such as anxiety can activate our survival responses of fight and flight, more than flock and befriend. I always advise compassion, to care for the emotions of suffering rather than letting them jump out into a narrative, judgment, and criticism.

That doesn't seem to be what happened, at least in public. I don’t know how Joe was treated privately, but publicly, it looked to me like a ruthless attachment to a narrative of decline and a cold political judgment that he must decline the nomination. Journalists, to my view, often used disrespectful, aggressive phrasing like “attacked,” and “pushed aside."

How different might this story have played out if compassion came first, followed by a truly objective assessment of his capacity and competence, rather than a decision weighted by supposed political peril? We will never know.

Going Forward with Grace

I’m hopeful that what we’ll be left with is a memory of Joe Biden’s grace and selflessness in stepping down from the campaign. I’m sure the next weeks and months will see many tributes to him and his lifetime of public service. It will and should be the best gold watch any soon-to-be-retiree has ever gotten.

But the lessons for our shared humanity will be dissected for the rest of American history, I’m sure.

We all age. We are all related. How do we relate to the aged among us, and those with perceived or real disabilities? How do we relate to ourselves as we age and perceive our own disabilities? Do we attack? Do we cringe? Will we show kindness and compassion?

I hope we choose love, more than we did in this very public succession frenzy.

© 2024 Ravi Chandra, M.D., D.F.A.P.A.