— The opium of immortality – a stark warning to a youth-obsessed world
By Zulqurain
Indian actress Dia Mirza’s words landed like a quiet thunderclap — the kind that forces you to stop, to rethink, to confront uncomfortable truths.
When asked about the modern obsession with longevity, youthfulness, and the feverish cult of “reverse ageing,” she didn’t offer the usual diplomatic reflections. Instead, she called it what it is: “the opium that has corrupted the conscience of man.”
And she didn’t stop there.
Dia traced a direct, unvarnished connection between this vanity-driven pursuit of eternal youth and the much larger crises unraveling around us. In her view, the same ego that refuses to accept ageing is the ego destroying our ecosystems.
The same desperation to control time and appearance is mirrored in our reckless attempts to control nature, economies, and societies.
The same insecurity that fuels billion-dollar anti-ageing industries is fuelling environmental degradation, social inequality, and the widening cracks within our collective conscience.
At a moment when the world is running after immortality with the hunger of an addict — from miracle serums and cosmetic tweaks to tech-billionaire fantasies of biological reprogramming — Dia’s words felt like a necessary shock to the system. She reminded us that this relentless chase comes with a cost. Not just the personal cost of self-worth eroding under unrealistic standards, but the societal cost of prioritising vanity over values, and the planetary cost of prioritising consumption over conservation.
It was more than a comment. It was a moral checkpoint.
Dia Mirza has always stood apart — her voice measured yet firm, her activism rooted in care rather than spectacle. But at @WeTheWomenAsia, she brought a clarity that cut through the noise, urging us to reconsider what we glorify and why. In an age where insecurity has been industrialised and sold back to us as aspiration, her refusal to bow to that narrative was genuinely refreshing.
Can’t thank you enough, @deespeak, for raising an issue most fear to touch.
You are, in every sense, a game changer.
The idea of longevity and youthfulness, I think, is the opium that has corrupted the conscience of man,' said Dia Mirza when asked about the feverish cult of reverse ageing. And she didn’t stop there. Dia drew a straight, uncomfortable line between this vanity project and the… pic.twitter.com/UvfMaI3EkS
— barkha dutt (@BDUTT) December 6, 2025
