Is Cognitive Decline Inevitable?

The cognitive decline that President Biden is exhibiting is something we all have to face at some point, either in ourselves, in a family member, or in a friend. I’ve long wondered, is the deterioration of the brain an inevitable part of aging?

My father was the antithesis of an introspective man, unlike his only son, who’s innately inclined to a contemplative and philosophical life. My outspoken aunt, father’s only sister, while walking between us once looked at her brother and then at me and exclaimed, “Have you EVER seen a more different father and son? But he was sharp as a tack until he died at 93.

After you reach a certain age, even with no family history of dementia and parents and grandparents living well into their 80’s and 90’s, cognitive decline can become a nagging fear. For anyone, especially a man as prideful and stubborn as Joe Biden, acknowledging deterioration is a very difficult thing.

One morning recently I awoke at 7:30 to a message from my doctor’s coldly clinical assistant. She left a voicemail that sounded like it was for another patient. When I returned her call and said that it wasn’t clear, she called back and said I would need a cognitive test when I came in.

My doctor and I have talked about politics and philosophy during my visits. So it was a little grating to have his assistant, who isn’t even a nurse, insist that I needed a cognitive test over her confusion or miscommunication.

Therefore I can imagine how difficult it must be for President Biden, who was prone to confusion and miscommunication even in his prime (called “Biden gaffes”) to admit in front of the whole world he’s on an irrevocable downslide, and should “pass the torch” to his vice president.

The two sides of Joe Biden are clashing, and his better angels aren’t winning. On one side is the egoistic and willful Biden, from which the “fighter” Kamala Harris glowingly refers to emanates. On the other side are his political instincts, which are wedded to his love for ordinary Americans and his country, and which carried him to victory in 2020, restoring a semblance of normalcy to America.

At this point the stubborn Biden, which held him in good stead as long as his political instincts remained primary, has taken over, to the detriment of the prospects for the nation and the world.

In a recent column I said that the die was cast, that Biden will lose and the last trumpet will be blown for the fascist mob and their evil puppeteers. Now it seems even clearer that before the complete collapse of the international order (not to mention the ecological order), global citizens have to pour the foundation for a true alternative at all levels – spiritual, philosophical and political.

Given Biden and America’s decline, the NATO summit that just ended in Washington, held in the same hall where the alliance to contain the Soviet Union was hatched, was a sideshow of sound and fury signifying nothing but more war, in Ukraine, Gaza and the world.

Joe Biden’s stubbornness is beginning to look like the pigheadedness of an old man stuck in the past. Robert Reich is wrong when he says, “Only one group is going to persuade him to leave office– the Democratic party’s biggest donors,” though Reich’s larger point is undeniable: “The Democratic party is little more than a national fundraising machine, as is the Republican party.”

Cognitive decline is a deeply personal issue, and the only person who can convince Joe Biden to bow out gracefully for the sake of the nation and world is Jill Biden. And despite her educational degrees and experience, she doesn’t appear inclined to do so.

Would a Kamala Harris candidacy change not only the political dynamic in America, but the trajectory of the present age? Hardly. Without radical change beginning within enough individuals, man’s course is going to continue on its downward spiral, and the future will be like the present, only more so.

So what are the dwindling numbers of individuals who haven’t quit on humanity and life, and are hanging onto their spirits and sanity by a thread in the miasma of this world, to do?

That entails going from the ridiculousness of politics to the sublimities of religious philosophy. What is the relationship between methodless meditation and cognitive health? Does the heart keep the brain young, or is cognition, in man or machine, the most important thing?

Clearly, quieting the mind and releasing the emotional toxins that build up in the heart, comes first. Daily moments of stillness in nature, even if just in the backyard or patio, allow the pain and suffering that accumulate in the heart to rise to the surface. Then, if we simply attend to the hurt and sorrow within us in passive watchfulness, they are released. 

Then when one cries, it isn’t out of self-pity, and the brain has a respite and rest from the mechanical processes and accumulations of thought and emotion.

The continuousness of thought as self-concern, worry, etc., shrinks the heart and contributes to the decline of cognitive functioning. Die to thought every day, and the heart and mind remain young.

Martin LeFevre

lefevremartin77@gmail 

© Scoop Media