There are people in society generally who think they’re
going to live forever. They don’t acknowledge that they’ve gotten older, or if
they do, it’s always got to be at the expense of someone in their vicinity. As
in, ‘yes, I know I’m 75 years old, but you’re getting old/older too’. It’s as
though they can never accept that they are old and that the world is no longer
their oyster. They also cannot accept that the younger generation is replacing
them at work, nor do they want to facilitate this process in the slightest.
They will be lying on their deathbeds protesting that they still have so much
to do, that their work is so important, and that no one can take their place. Never have I heard one of them say that they are satisfied with their
long careers and that it’s time to hand the torch to the younger generation.
They grudgingly give up their cushy leadership positions, they resent that they
cannot get funding past a certain age, and when they are hospitalized for a
serious illness (true story for one person I knew, now deceased), they are
already making travel plans to hold their next lecture in one or another
foreign country. They refuse to acknowledge old age or infirmity. Mortality
does not exist.
I am no age discriminator. I am happy for the
past-retirement age people I know who are still happily working in my
workplace. Most of them have made their peace with their age and their
retirement, and work part-time helping out on different research projects where
they can contribute with their expertise. Win-win for all involved. The people I’m
talking about are the few retirees who think they still rule the roost and that
everything revolves around them, their wishes, and their projects and ideas.
The egotists, the great immortal scientists, who cannot accept defeat or the
fact that the younger scientists are taking their places. If you are one of
these people, you will get zero sympathy from me. Why? Because everything is
about you, your career (mostly on ice), your 'promising' future, your next research project that’s
going to make you a star. You are pissed that the rest of the world doesn’t see
how great you are or how much you have to offer. It doesn’t matter that you don’t
care about the rules and regulations that have grown up around the practice of
science; no, you want to do science, and you want your students to do science,
the ‘way you always did it. It worked for me. I don’t care about the rules and
regulations, and neither should my students, because I said so.’
I have no problem with a lifelong intellectual interest in
science; I see that I will also have it when I am old. But I have a big problem
when your unlimited ego interferes with the lives and careers of students who
depend on you to be a mature person, to let go of your ego and to put their
lives and careers first. But no, the great almighty immortal egotistical
scientists cannot do this. They cannot let go, because that would be tantamount
to admitting they were old and mortal. They cannot see reason, they cannot be
mature, they must throw tantrums when their wishes are hindered, and they must
get their way. All in the name of what? What is it they are going to achieve
now in their mid-70s? I don’t doubt that their contributions are still worthwhile.
I do doubt that their contributions are going to lead to abundant funding for their
immortal research projects. I think that the really good scientists in the
world are those who can pass the torch to their students and to the younger
generation, who are generous with help and praise, and who do not set up
roadblocks every step of the way for the students they mentor. These are the
non-egotists, and these are the scientists who will be immortalized by history.
