Passage Three

It is curious how often sympathy for the old and infirm takes a form which actually humiliates them.’ Their friends, with good will, sometimes lean forward to rearrange their neckwear, touching their hair or patting their faces--things they would never presume to do, unasked, to one of their contemporaries. An equally humiliating habit is to talk about old people in front of them as if they were not there, discussing their health. It is now universally accepted that children should be encouraged to do as much as they can for themselves in order to develop their brains and muscles, but so few people today seem to have time to allow the elderly the same means of keeping their minds and muscles active. They perform innumerable services for the old that they would be much better left to do, even with a struggle, for themselves. Convenient flats, "motherly" visitors, or organized entertainments cannot make up for the fundamental need which must be satisfied the need to retain to the end of life human dignity and the respect of one’s fellows.

If the old are left to do as much as they can for themselves, ______.