AARP? ARRGH.

摘要

Every seven years," a friend of my grandmother's used to say, "your body changes." She told me this when I was 7, and again when I turned 14 (I believed it when I turned 14). She was gone by the time I hit 21 (another big one), and my next three sabbaticals passed uneventfully. But I am now pushing 49 ... and I've just received an interesting piece of mail: an invitation to join the American Association of Retired Persons. Yikes. All right. We all get old. Even baby boomers. But being a classic self-absorbed, quasi-messianic member of my generation, I cannot let the occasion pass without deep reflection. Actually, some deep reflection may be called for here. As our demographi-cally grotesque horde drifts toward decrepitude, a significant political decision looms. Do we really want to support a group that is arguably the most powerful lobby in Washington and has become, over time, a narrow, encrusted and slightly cheesy bastion of anachronistic liberalism?