Is it just me or do a lot of people in our/my generation use the whole... "the world is fucked, everythings terrible, nothing will ever get better, and we'll all burn alive in the climate crisis or die by nuclear bomb" mentality as, well, a cop-out to avoid thinking about their futures?
Girl you are not dying tragically young as a victim of societal collapse. Start taking your education seriously, make a long-term plan for how you want to achieve your personal, financial, and career goals with realistic expectations, and research different types of retirement funds 💀 "late-stage capitalism" is not going to kidnap you in the night and take away all your power over the scary things in life to turn you into a passive victim of circumstance any time soon
"But this time its different!" Its really not. The Cuban missile crisis almost had the world blow up, and it didn't. The cold war that set the stage for it existed in a constant state of the threat of nuclear annihilation.
Our world map today looks completely different from how it looked a thousand years ago. Nations and empires have risen and collapsed. Wars have been waged over petty bullshit that changed names and borders. Empires that were once thought invincible and perpetual crumbled to dust within a peasant's lifetime as they tilled their fields and worried about crop failure. The invention of flight, motion pictures, and the automobile chased the coattails of WWI and the great depression. Children played mischief games and elders complained about kids these days being too soft and sensitive during the fall of the Roman empire.
Our generational struggles are not uniquely terrible compared to any other generation's. Your life will not come to a dramatic and cinematic end to all of humanity and the world as we know it any time soon. The world will change and evolve as it always has throughout all of history and all of its constant perpetual bullshit, and you will continue to live on regardless of the outcome. Yes, even if you're queer. Yes, even if you're trans. Yes, even if you're neurodivergent. Yes, even if you're racialized. Set up your 401k and find ways to guard against becoming senile not if, but when you grow old.
Every generation before us has fallen victim to the logical fallacy that we're living in uniquely bad times and worried about the world ending because 1) you have a lot of information about the bad things going on right now 2) in contrast to the decades and centuries past you don't have information how it ends.
World War II was uniquely terrible and we know it ended in 1945 and was followed by an era of huge economic growth in the west.
I think it's important to keep perspective on this not only to make some plans for your own life, but because there is purpose in engaging with politics and the small footprint you can leave on your community right now.
Yes it's worth it to pressure your local government to move in the right direction for important issues, yes it's worth it to come together with local non-profits, friends or neighbors to tackle an issue close to your heart. That is how change happens.
Because the world isn't ending today or next year or even in 10 years. You will be there and it's going to be nice to look at a tree that you planted today that had 10 years to grow.
