Document_2022-11-25_150103

238 MoraL PROBLEMS their own feces, their nostrils filled with the smell of their own urine, Picture it—and then imagine your grandchildren seeing that picture, In the European Union, many of the most inhumane conditions we allow are already illegal or—like the sow stalls into which pregnant pigs are often crammed in the United States—will be illegal soon. The Institutionalized and Isolated Elderly Nearly 2 million of America’s elderly are warehoused in nursing homes, out of sight and, to some extent, out of mind. Some 10,000 for-profit facili- ties have arisen across the country in recent decades to hold them. Other elderly Americans may live independently, but often they are isolated and cut off from their families. (The United States is not alone among advanced democracies in this. Consider the heat wave that hit France in 2003: While many families were enjoying their summer vacations, some 14,000 elderly parents and grandparents were left to perish in the stifling temperatures.) Is this what Western modernity amounts to—societies that feel no filial obligations to their inconvenient elders? Sometimes we can learn from societies much poorer than ours. My English mother spent the last 50 years of her life in Ghana, where I grew up. In her final years, it was her good fortune not only to have the resources to stay at home, but also to live in a country where doing so was custom- ary. She had family next door who visited her every day, and she was cared for by doctors and nurses who were willing to come to her when she was too ill to come to them. In short, she had the advantages of a society in which older people are treated with respect and concern. Keeping aging parents and their children closer is a challenge, particu- larly in a society where almost everybody has a job outside the home (if not across the country). Yet the three signs apply here as well: When we see old people who, despite many living relatives, suffer growing isolation, we know something is wrong. We scarcely try to defend the situation; when we can, we put it out of our minds. Self-interest, if nothing else, should make us hope that our descendants will have worked out a better way. The Environment Of course, most transgenerational obligations run the other way—from parents to children—and of these the most obvious candidate for oppro- brium is our wasteful attitude toward the planet’s natural resources and What Will Future Generations Condemn Us For? 239 ecology. Look at a satellite picture of Russia, and you'll see a vast expanse of parched wasteland where decades earlier was a lush, and verdant land- scape. That's the Republic of Kalmykia, home to what was recognized in the 1990s as Europe’s first man-made desert. Desertification, which is pri- marily the result of destructive land-management practices, threatens a third of the Earth's surface; tens of thousands of Chinese villages have been overrun by sand drifts in the past few decades. It’s not as though we're unaware of what we're doing to the planet: We know the harm done by deforestation, wetland destruction, pollution, overfishing, greenhouse gas emissions—the whole litany. Our descen- dants, who will inherit this devastated Earth, are unlikely to have the lux- ury of such recklessness. Chances are, they won't be able to avert their eyes, even if they want to. Let’s not stop there, though. We will all have our own suspicions about which practices will someday prompt people to ask, in dismay: What were they thinking? Even when we don't have a good answer, we'll be better off for antici- pating the question. Kwame Anthony Appiah: What Will Future Generations Condemn Us For? L. Appiah identifies three signs that a practice will be targeted for con- demnation by future generations. Do you agree that these are good indicators that something is morally suspect? 2. Can you think of other such signs? 3. Which contemporary practices, other than the four that Appiah men- tions, do you think will be the target of future moral criticism? 4. Canyou think of good signs that a contemporary practice will earn the respect of future generations? If so, what are these signs? 5. Which current practices possess these features and s0, to your mind, are likely to earn the respect of future generations?