Should Teens Just Give Up?
Fatalism vs the future
Build knowledge, skills, and resources to navigate a wide spectrum of potential futures. This includes saving money, investing in education, building portable wealth, and establishing contingency plans, while remaining aware that it might all be pointless.
This post is a reaction to hearing teenagers say they’re giving up on life.
A frequent question I hear from today's youth is "why bother?".
Why bother getting an education?
Why bother working hard?
Why bother saving for the future?
These questions are natural after learning that civilization is driving full-speed towards a cliff. We're getting fucked from multiple directions so many are YOLO-ing for today.
Quit school, blow your savings on drugs and do whatever the hell you want. I get it. It feels like the risks are rapidly compounding and the future is hopeless.
Time to give up. Jump off the corporate treadmill and enjoy the world before everything goes to shit. Right?
After all, we only have 5? or is it 10? or maybe 25? years left.
Let's pump the brakes a bit.
Put the evidence aside for a second and allow me to pour you a glass of hopium. I won't go as far to say we won't someday end up in a dystopian work camp, overseen by our AI drone overlords. But there is a possibility that this happens later than expected. Yay!
When an outcome is unclear, you can assign probabilities to scenarios. There is a non-zero chance that the future is a recognizable place where we still earn a living and pay bills.
I remember the 1980s when we all assumed we'd eventually die in a nuclear fireball within the decade. In the 1990s, many HIV positive people assumed they had no future and spent their life savings as they waited to die. During the early 2000s, oil production was to rapidly decline, sending humans back into the stone age.
Despite numerous flirtations with Armageddon, there was no nuclear war.
Although HIV had been a death sentence, new drugs eventually allowed people to live far beyond initial expectations.
A surge in shale and oilsands production offset conventional well production declines, allowing production of petroleum-equivalents to continue growing.
In a parallel universe, we are all dead. We starved to death in a nuclear winter or due to a shortage of fertilizer and transportation (both of which require fossil fuels). But in this universe, somehow we didn't.
We've been extremely lucky and our fate may soon change. But even us doomers must admit we're still dealing with an unknown future.
However slim the chance, what if you get to retirement age and haven't prepared for it? It's cathartic to say "fuck it" and YOLO your way through life. In a world where it feels like we've lost control, doing whatever you please can be empowering in the short term. However, that is effectively a bet - not just that civilization will collapse but when it will collapse.
The future is unlikely to be better than the past, however we could simply grind our way through time, figuring out how to do more with less. If this is true, investments made today could still set us up to better handle change.
Plan for your future, if that future ends tomorrow, you won't be concerned about it anyways. But if it doesn't, at least you're prepared. - Unknown
In practical terms, this means you continue to work and save money. Invest in your knowledge and skills. Become a better person. Do something that helps the world while giving you an income. If you can't do that, milk the system for all you can get, knowing it's all a farce.
In addition to preparing for some form of normalcy, I'd also suggest preparing for the worst. Have your passports in order. Have a plan. Ensure a portion of your wealth is portable. Maybe learn things and make connections that could help you flee. I recognize not everyone has this luxury, but those who do should prepare instead of only thinking about today.
Perhaps preparing for some form of future that resembles the present by participating in the system makes you complicit, but outside of a few personal limitations (no driving, no flying, etc.) what choice to do you have? Not everyone has the option to live off the land, unfortunately.
Your version of investing for the future may look different than mine or our parents. However, to not prepare is like going without fire insurance on your house. You probably won't need it, but you'd be devastated if you actually did.
Despite my previous attempts to estimate timing for stages of collapse, it's all unpredictable. An estimate off by just 10 years could mean a decade of destitution. You've essentially created your own personal collapse in this scenario.
Instead, prepare for multiple possibilities.
Moreover, as it becomes apparent the system is slowing to a halt, those with resources and skills could ride the decline or transition more comfortably. On the other hand, the decline may be imperceptible, but those who invested in their future might stay remain ahead of the average person.
This is all speculation. We could all die in a ball of fire next week for all I know. Live and appreciate each day to its fullest, but to bet the farm on an unknown future is foolish.
I think yours is a good point of view, and I recall the YOLO effects back in the 1970's as Britain took a couple of great leaps into its post war decline.like 1973, when the Western world just stopped for a year! (The first oil crisis).
But all that said, it seems to me that any halfways-intelligent young person should legitimately be very scared of the omni-crises heading our way, and any dumb young person is probably either deep into religion, drugs or, in America, Trumpism. (And perhaps Far Right in Europe or Asia). Desperate times call for desperate measures.
My suggestions?
For parents, there are some crisis skills for your children that are really worth knowing:
Foreign languages; English, Spanish and French covers most of the westernised world, N & S Americas, Europe, Australia and Africa (one third french speaking). Mandarin is harder, but covers much of the rest. Some fluency in a second, and basic words in another language really is a good grounding.
Foreign education. The one cheap way to broaden one's viewpoints and attitudes is to study abroad, such as a university course in Europe in English, whilst learning their language. It also means new social skills, foreign friends, and a stand-out CV if there are any jobs. Most of all it means confidence and flexibility in tackling new situations, not least going to live in a foreign country.
Basic skills. Go camping. Go sailing. Go long distance hiking. Climb a mountain. Do a long distance bike ride (for charity?). Learn to paraglide or do a charity parachute jump. Learn rock climbing on a local wall. Go canoeing. Go fishing. Learn your own risk acceptance level. Learn your limits.
All the above builds self awareness, personal resilience, confidence and personality, and is an alternative to a modern life lived on a tiny screen!
But ultimately, I think we, our generation in the West, have been unusually fortunate to have had this amazing time of peace and prosperity, the richest people that have ever lived on this planet. So of course as the oil runs dry and the climate collapses into chaos, it will seem even worse in contrast.
Young people will need to choose where they live very carefully, more so than ever. Politics, fundamental local resources and economics (like food and water and energy), climate risks such as storms, flood risks, fires and temperature rises, and perhaps most of all, the kind of people that already live there, how welcoming they are and are they living a worthwhile life. All these things will be essential for any kind of successful personal life in a seriously overcrowded world.
There is one last thing I'd mention - military service. On the one hand, military service also offers a skill set not easily acquired elsewhere, and most seem to make lifelong and mutually supportive friends. On the other hand, so many come back with serious, life-changing damage, physical and psychological, that can ruin their lives. If they come back at all.
Trump is doubtless planning military adventures in Mexico, Central America, Greenland, Canada, and probably Cuba, all for reasons of ego and corporate greed. He may even send troops to defend Israel if/when a new Middle East war breaks out, which it surely will. None of those wars will be for any 'right' reasons, and I think the psychological damage of potentially killing and/or being killed is so much worse when it is not necessary.
Just my view.
My kids are grown, married and with kids, so they aren't listening to me. If I were a young American today I'd probably head for Canada right now, and try to get into a university or college there. If I were more ambitious than that, then onward to Europe, again to university or work, perhaps Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands or France. Portugal if I had some Spanish and liked a warmer climate. Ireland if I was fixed on English language.
Ultimately, for best future survival, then New Zealand, or maybe southern South America, say Patagonia. As far away from us lot as one can get! I would CERTAINLY get out of America as fast as I could; before the conscriptions, before the wars, before the borders are closed!
Just my views...
A popular bumper sticker of the boomer generation is "I'm spending my kids inheritance". Who actually started the YOLO'ing? Let's not blame the kids.
I agree with you that it isn't wise to give up hope for the future. Realistically however, most of the younger generations have no way to do the things you are suggesting. In the boomer generation they were automatic and done without thought. The economic system has changed drastically since then. The majority are wondering where their next meal is going to come from or if they will be living on the street tomorrow.
The boomers had the best times this country will ever see and will never be seen again. The bumper sticker says it all. What would you do if you were a teenager today? I heard from someone that Micky Dee's has eliminated cashier's and it's now self'ish service. What's next? A career at Micky Dee's is gone.
You give sound advice for a past time but not for today. The young are reacting to the fact that they have no way to plan for the future. A lucky few may.
Nice try though. I certainly don't have any better answers.
Looks like you blocked turd brain. I was going to suggest it but you beat me to it. THANK YOU! I may go start trolling on his idiotic site...... Did he ever say anything that made any sense?