Hello @tarakp,
I am very sorry for the recent death of your father, in a way I remember my father's death in 2011. My condolences also for all your family.
They aren't happy about this as they love it here, but this is part of aging - losing what you love. Everything ends and that includes put abilities.
This paragraph reminds me when my father was unfairly dismissed from the last formal job he had, I told him on that occasion, calm dad, every cycle comes to an end. This is true, but it hurts to suffer it firsthand when you reach retirement age. My father was not resigned, I started a job lawsuit, he was able to win it but in the end, he resigned so as not to harm some coworkers whom he appreciated. I miss him so much even though he lives in me.
The cycle will be affected no matter where you are, America, Asia, Europe, Oceania or Africa, the system is just like that. Obviously, this can and should be improved, it is our responsibility and thus avoid injustices as much as possible, caring for our elders, who are more advanced along the way, as well as creating the conditions for those who are beginning the journey.
We often put so much of our life identity into work and then we retire and feel that we have lost a part of ourselves. I think it would be easier in many respects to "die working" which is perhaps part of the reason that artists never have to retire.
I think it is a cycle that can feed itself - the old help the young and the young help the old. I think the world we have created makes the elderly feel irrelevant - but that isn't the way it has to be.
You are right, this is wrong and we should -everyone within the scope of their influence- change it.
Not only the elderly feel irrelevant, but also many young people who unfortunately the system molds based on the interests of very few. However, there is always a way and it is up to you to find it, just as disruptive artists do.
The young feel very irrelevant, because they live their life treating people as disposable objects - making themselves disposable in the process. They chase meaning by trying to make themselves feel important by doing things that are of little importance.
An attitudinal problem that undoubtedly converges on a larger one: existential.
Changing attitudes is not easy by virtue of the fact that we expose our system of values and beliefs determining how we act. If someone considers you disposable and uses you, they should not complain after they discard him too, in short, they are apples from the same basket. The worst thing is that being frivolous and utilitarian, they also become inconsequential, meaningless in life, a very sad experience that plagues most of our society.
I think we have to go back to the simple, to what made us successful in the natural world and that we have lost in the artificiality of our cities.