The knowledge that I have to go to work for the rest of my life. Other people get to live remarkable lives, and I don’t. This is it. Forever.
Looking at the world getting worse every single day and realising that so few people care that we’re essentially doomed unless some miracle happens.
True, but revolutions usually take place by the few. I think that we just stopped discussing things with each other and just let things be. There will be no divine intervention I think.
Climate change, and the associated realization that if I ever have children they will live in a world even more inhospitable than I grew up with.
I see people with young kids/infants and just have to shake my head. The absolute narcissism and self-centeredness it takes to bring another human into this dying world blows my mind.
You will only understand why only if you have children. There is joy and hope that one day they might be the ones to make society better. It is far from narcissism and self-centeredness. Good parents sacrifice a lot and to do their absolute best for their children. Don’t get depressed and most importantly, do not lose your hope!
I wish I could agree with you. But I don’t and stand by my original statement. For what it’s worth, I’m old, as in my only kid is an adult. I love him and cherish him and would do anything in the world for him, and as far as I know, he feels the same about me. He’s received an education, has a professional job, etc. Despite all that, I still think it was a shitty, narcissistic thing for me to do, given the current state of the world. It maybe wasn’t so obvious decades ago, but there is no excuse these days.
Currently I would say the fear of unemployment. Getting a good paying job is difficult day by day.
In Germany it’s starting to get hard to find employees. Our demographic is fucked.
The company I work for offers 35h per week / 30 days of vacation plus 6 additional days that you can either take or transform into money / work from home (if you wish) / paid overtime / paid travel time / good travel compensation / a very, very strong union (IG Metall) / subsidized meals / very good pay (for German standards) etc.
Yet we have a hard time finding people. It’s a bummer but I believe the young people don’t really have anything to work for. Nice housing is scarce and way too expensive, excessive consumption just fuels the climate catastrophe so no point in amassing shit no one really needs. They just want to have some time to themselves and don’t give a shit about leading a comfortable life. And I fully understand them. If it weren’t for my daughter I’d have sold the house and all meaningless shit and lead a healthy life instead of working for some dipshit just to make said dipshit richer.
I see. I think that this is happening almost everywhere. Neo-liberalism’s tactics are hitting hard societies that are implementing it. But yet again, sell everything and lead a healthy life, where and how…?
I don’t necessarily mean to live like a nomad or something similar. I mean to cut working hours in half for example and just come to terms with living in a shitty apartment. With more spare time on your hands, you can be outside more, do more sports, pick up hobbies (not all hobbies need to be expensive). Just live a more modest life but put the focus on yourself instead of work. Most people with well paying jobs grow accustomed to the luxury they can afford, which makes it difficult to go back to the level of comfort one used to have when they were students for example. I was happy as a student, I was also dirt poor. But happy!
Existence is stressful.
