I'm 27 for the record.
Just feeling increasingly hopeless and that shit sucked when I was born and it'll still suck, possibly even more, by the time I die. Even if I live to be 100.
That humanity will reach a Star Trek-esque utopia eventually, but I was unlucky and born too early when everything's still terrible.
zoomers and millenials are the most left wing generation since like the 30s so there's some hope i guess
73 years is a long fucking time.
If you asked a young Russian peasant in 1847 if they thought the Russian Empire would fall in their life time what do you think they'd say? What about a plantation slave in the same era? How much hope do you think they'd have they or their chldren would ever see abolition? Or if you asked an Indian farmer if they'd live to see the fall of the British Empire?
New advances in communications and manufacturing technologies have almost without exception led to massive social change. The advent of the internet, the unceasing advance of automation and the impending climate apocalypse have all but ensured the next half century will be one of greater social change than humanity has ever before witnessed. It's our responsibilty to steer that change in the right direction. Things are almost certainly going to get ugly but we have in front of us the opportunity to effect greater change and do more good for humanity than anyone before us has ever had.
Keep fighting the good fight, keep hope alive and with any luck what we achieve in this century will make Gene Roddenberry seem like an unimaginative pessimist.
We can't say for sure one way or another, absolutely no one can predict the future. But I like to hope for always building a better world.
I have faith that when the boomers die off some good will happen.
Personally, I have no idea if things will get better or worse in my lifetime. I have a dope-ass four year old son, though, and I'll be damned if I'm leaving a worse world for him. Nothing like a baby comrade to motivate one to praxis.
Plant a tree knowing you will not live to enjoy its shade.
Just because capitalism sucks doesn't mean you can't make it work well for yourself. Even while fighting for a better option, you can still learn marketable skills that can make you money by selling your labor. If you find something you can enjoy doing that earns a decent living, even if you don't own your own means of production, you can still have a decent life. Money doesn't buy happiness, but not struggling with bills and having enough for some entertainment can seriously improve your life.
Even better, I think, is figure out how to live cheap and not put all your energy into a job. Take that time and energy and build relationships, do revolutionary organizing, make art/music, educate yourself
Living cheap is my specialty. I supported 2 of us as a grad student in a pretty expensive area.
I have too much social anxiety to start any organizing, but I've attended blm protests and donate whatever I can to causes.
even if material conditions continue to deteriorate, you can still improve your future by building connections with other people and a social self
at least that's what Matt says and I'm hoping it's true
If things only partially collapse instead of completely falling apart, it could lead to some temporary improvements, kind of like how WWII decreased inequality in America for a couple decades.
The American empire is collapsing and a communist country is rising as the dominant power. I find solace in that.
I think materially things will get worse, however, in terms of society changing to be less shitty I think there's a possibility. Personally, I think that I'd prefer to be poor and live in the burned-out shell of a city where people have finally come together to make a better world than to live comfortably in a world where everything is getting worse all the time and there's nothing anyone can do about it. I'd rather have a threat I can face than have all these looming crises hanging over my head giving me anxiety, because at least when you face a threat it gives you a sense of purpose and makes sense.
