I personally cringe when I hear a friend js having a kid. All I can think of is how bad theyre going to have it. Hell id definitely have been better off being born 20 years earlier, but these new kids are REALLY screwed unless they have super rich parents.
“Nothing new under the sun” I suppose!
I think things will make a turn in about ten years. Yes, climate is very critical, but the kids of today will have a better shot at shaping the world in a time when the last old ideas from the fossil fueled age have finally died.
It’s going to get rough, but at least they have a chance of changing it. We never did get a chance, because the boomers were kept alive with improved healthcare. It’s the same people who have all the wealth and power today as it was in 1980s.
So maybe Gen-X and millennials will be the next old assholes, but at least they’re better educated and their views are much better aligned with younger generations than the old ones. We might finally be able to work together across generations politically in just a few years time. It’s much needed, and it’s hard work, but I envy the kids who get to be the creators of the post-boomer society.
We need more optimism, for sure. But I can’t get my head around the idea that the new generation will be better than us.
The 70 years of relative stability has been exchanged by a few dickheads to make as much money over the expense of everyone as possible. Those people mean to keep it that way.
Even if I am being pessimistic, social media has made everything so depressing. We used to believe in continuous progress, we used to be excited about the future.
No, we have to funnel money to that lizard bot so he and his buddies can build their private bunkers because they know what they’re doing is fucked up, but the money is too enticing.
Yeah the problem is with all the deregulation on generational wealth and workarounds for rich people to stockpile and keep their money, the offspring of the ruling class will be the same kind of assholes. Look at Sam Altman, he’s not old. Look at mark whateverthefuck. He’s not old. Now, those people didn’t exactly inherent their money, but you can’t tell me these guys won’t be around for the next 40 years fucking shit up. And their kids? And the kids of all the Murdochs, the bush kids, the Koch offspring…there are a lot of shitty families able to reproduce and spread their sickness. This isn’t going to wind down and give us a fresh start. These rich people will be protected by an increasingly violent state and they will all burn it down before they let it change. They’re not weakening over time. They’re amassing even more wealth and the regulations and ideas around capitalism are only getting more virulent and violent. We aren’t about to ride off into the sunset on the backs of a new generation. They are going to be focusing on surviving, more than we ever were.
Every single generation talks about how good it was when they were young. This generation will ultimately be no different. And as a parent, I am doing whatever I can to ensure my kids are happy.
On top of that, you can’t miss what you never had. Humans are adaptable and resilient, and kids’ imaginations are unstoppable, and my own kids, despite the constant intrusion of digital dopamine, still love to build forts, and play with Lego, and dolls, and just run around being goofballs.
Just gotta hang on.
Sorry did I miss a decade? My youth consisted of hanging chads -> 9/11 -> The War on Oil -> 2008 financial crisis -> the death of Hope via congressional fuckery -> Trump. When were things good…? I had hope for universal healthcare with Obama and hope for Bernie before Trump 1.0 but now I’m not sure what to look forward to. That said; can’t stop won’t stop.
I honestly and truly hope you and yours remain healthy and happy. I don’t begrudge you that or wish you ill. But I haven’t seen good times and at this point don’t really expect to.
Yeah I was 14 for 9/11, for frame of reference. I’m somehow able to look back at the last 25 years or so and glean some positivity from it, because I’m unwilling to burden myself with global problems. And that doesn’t mean they’re not issues I’m interested in and care about, but I try to comparmentalize my life. I don’t bring work home and I sure as shit don’t bring politics to bed with me. I spend time with my friends, and now I have a family of my own, and we make memories, and we create glour own good times.
I just feel like it’s useless to base my life on these big problems. I am not 9/11, though I live in Jersey and know many who were affected. I’m not the wars in Iraq, though I served and know people who came home unwhole or not at all. Even though shit is bleak, I’m not going to allow it soil my life, because then I become bleak, and then what’s the point.
So yeah, I can’t stop trying to positivity in my life, and I won’t stop, because then I’m fucked.
And so I’ve said it many times here and on Reddit, that my fights are local. In my town, and county, and State (not that big) are the things that I can personally get involved in and see the fruits of my labor.