I used to think I was "awake" because I became intensely aware of my mortality in my early 20s. But actually I feel like that's the norm, these days.
Gen Z seem to take "YOLO" seriously from a young age. Nobody is planning for anything beyond their own lifetimes. Some people still can't resist their biological imperative and have kids, but they're all basically YOLOing their lifestyles and their actions, if not their words, are saying "not my problem, you'll figure it out when I'm gone".
So, yeah, be aware you won't be here forever, but what we need is for people to leave the damn place in a better state than they found it, or at least not worse.
> Gen Z seem to take "YOLO" seriously from a young age. [...] and their actions, if not their words, are saying "not my problem, you'll figure it out when I'm gone".
Can you blame them? Boomers are saying the exact same thing while treating CO2 emissions like they're the main ingredient of a goddamned Werther's Original. Living here is only going to get harder as Gen Z gets older. "Fuck it, enjoy it while it's good" is a rational sentiment when you're born into an ongoing catastrophe that is actively being made worse.
If I take into consideration what I know about history then I'd say times are about as certain and safe as ever. What changed is that we now have an entire industry that thrives on fear and is very, very successful at it.
I used to think I was "awake" because I became intensely aware of my mortality in my early 20s. But actually I feel like that's the norm, these days.
Gen Z seem to take "YOLO" seriously from a young age. Nobody is planning for anything beyond their own lifetimes. Some people still can't resist their biological imperative and have kids, but they're all basically YOLOing their lifestyles and their actions, if not their words, are saying "not my problem, you'll figure it out when I'm gone".
So, yeah, be aware you won't be here forever, but what we need is for people to leave the damn place in a better state than they found it, or at least not worse.
It’s a value judgement. The media and culture make a lot of people think that leaving no children will be leaving the planet a better place.
Or that it's questionable to bring children into a world that is increasingly likely to be hostile to human life along several dimensions.
> Gen Z seem to take "YOLO" seriously from a young age. [...] and their actions, if not their words, are saying "not my problem, you'll figure it out when I'm gone".
Can you blame them? Boomers are saying the exact same thing while treating CO2 emissions like they're the main ingredient of a goddamned Werther's Original. Living here is only going to get harder as Gen Z gets older. "Fuck it, enjoy it while it's good" is a rational sentiment when you're born into an ongoing catastrophe that is actively being made worse.
Perhaps that's a result of being born into a world with (unprecedented?) amounts of uncertainty.
Climate change, automation threatening the value of human labor, rise of authoritarianism, "the West" losing it's hegemonic status, wars, genocides.
Hard to make long term plans for your life when the world is changing rapidly and we don't even know how it will look like in 10 years.
If I take into consideration what I know about history then I'd say times are about as certain and safe as ever. What changed is that we now have an entire industry that thrives on fear and is very, very successful at it.
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