Modern society, having evolved in the absence of a large cohort of the aged, has developed institutions inimical to their wellbeing. Their lives follow the Industrial-Christian model of work-sacrifice-reward. Their educations provide them with work skills but not the human resources to preserve their identity in retirement, even while retirement becomes an ideology. Gerontology presides over the gerontologization of America, wherein real wealth and security are replaced by symbols. The aged, challenging the values of society, thus become a class of subversives in an extermination camp.