Weekly Short Story: The Test by Richard Matheson

Richard Matheson, a respected twentieth century writer of science fiction and horror in his own right, is more known for his stories for television, most notably The Twilight Zone.  His 1954 short story The Test is more of a social commentary than it is science fiction: the sci-fi angle is there because it is a scary look into a possible future...the movie Logan's Run took this story's main theme to even greater extremes.  The Test appeared in the retrospective anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 16 (1954)…

Les and Terry are the father and mother and Jim and Johnny are the children, but the character of focus here is Les's 80-year old father Tom.  In this dystopian future scenario, the elderly are considered to be an excessive burden on society and its resources...consequently, every five years they are required to undergo a rigorous set of tests to ascertain their mental and physical viability.  If they fail, they are sentenced to death and if they pass, they get a five-year reprieve until they have to repeat it all again.  Les and Terry feel burdened by having Tom around, but also feel guilty about what will happen should he fail his test, which is quickly approaching...so Les repeatedly coaches his father with little hope of him passing.  What happens...well, once again here is where I suggest you read the story for yourself...

The Test was written after Social Security was enacted, but before Medicare and Medicaid became law.  Growing old can be difficult enough by itself without the feeling being imparted that the elderly are useless and need to be "dealt" with somehow.  The measure of how much a society deserves to exist can be made by how they take care of those unable to fend for themselves.  In our country we have two different models for this: the capitalistic one that encourages special tax-free retirement savings accounts that will be available through retirement, as well as an improving technology and enhanced medical care brought about by free enterprise, and the collective one in which the government provides safety nets like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid to ensure that the people's basic needs will be met as their aging progressively limits their abilities.  Mixing these two together along with family support seems to be a good formula, but the specifics are often hotly contested politically.  I think each generation, from the very old to the very young, needs to be treated within society with dignity and valued not only for what they may have done in the past or may have to offer in the future, but also as active members in the present.  In The Test, Tom was 80...that's not so far off from where I'm at now, so maybe I'm a little bit biased in favor of the old folks, seeing how I'm becoming one myself.  This sobering tale should serve as a wake-up call for anyone who thinks the world belongs to a certain age span and not beyond...