there is no reason to assume life is over at 72 - there are plenty of vigorous 72 year olds around but you aren't going to find them in a retirement home because they are busy being active.
I visit nursing homes several times a year in my work for Uncle Sam, and I typically meet briefly with several residents, randomly selected. Now there's no doubt that a significant percentage are in a bad way, physically, mentally, emotionally, etc. But others are in fine shape. Why are they there? Generally, it's because they're ninety or even a hundred plus and aren't quite able to live alone, perhaps only for financial reasons.
Life expectancy has been extended many years compared to when we middle-aged types were young and developed more or less fixed opinions about "being old." And once you get to be fifty or sixty and are in pretty good health, chances are you'll live quite a bit longer, and continue to be generally healthy doing it. Heart and brain diseases/conditions that end or severely diminish so many lives today are the focus of a lot of very productive research and effective treatment. I think the key is to live a healthy life to the extent you can, and try to do things that make life worth living, like being there for others.
only stupid and/or desperate (or weak) people believe in religion
An incredibly bizarre statement, imo. I'm an agnostic, with a strong expectation that there's some spiritual "dimension" to reality. I have no religious "faith," although I sort of wish I did. Yer saying Bergoglio is stupid, desperate, or weak? The Dalai Lama? Martin King? How about the Nazarean?
>>Most people have no idea what happens after death.
By definition,
no one does.
>>So naturally, they are afraid of it.
Doesn't sound natural to me, not at all.
portrays Atticus as a racist
I figure these things are complicated. My godfather was a naval officer (had the Lexington sunk out from under him in the Coral Sea) who grew up in South Carolina in the 1920s. I may never have met a finer gentleman, but he "knew" blacks were somehow inferior — intellectually, socially, whatever. He saw them as children, sort of. He was always kind to them, gentle. I think there were a lot of people like that years ago, men and women with strong character who were influenced by their social environment to be that way. Lincoln was, after all, a racist.
All that you mentioned and 'Flowers for Algernon'
I was strongly influenced by
1984 and
The Painted Bird.