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Don't the other generations feel the specter of dread hovering over us? Like you are running on a treadmill as fast as you can and knowing that if you trip or s

Don't the other generations feel the specter of dread hovering over us? Like you are running on a treadmill as fast as you can and knowing that if you trip or stumble, even a little, it's over and what progress you've made will be undone and you'll end up wandering the streets, muttering to yourself? Or maybe it's just me? Among the many things that make me feel ill is that byline. We're painfully aware that we exist to serve "The Economy"- perhaps _that_ is what is making us ill, that we must forever justify our existence in terms of the movements of bits of green paper?

badpun 7y ago
You don't need to serve the economy, just the customers of your employer. Furthermore, even if that's too burdening, in many countries you can still move to the forest and live free of any ties to the economy.
- freedomben 7y ago
  Legitimately wondering, which countries are those?
  - captainredbeard 7y ago
    The United States for all practical purposes. The Intermountain West is full of public land where dispersed camping is okay. You just have to move your camp every two weeks but humans lived like that for a long, long time...
  - badpun 7y ago
    In Siberia there are areas where you'll be the only human for dozens of miles in any direction. Canadian north and Amazon in Brazil should be similar. Of course, these are not the friendliest environment, but neither were the US before they were civilized by "the economy", that the OP seems to loathe so much.
chrisco255 7y ago
I was just thinking we don't get enough physical activity and we eat too much junk.
- Joe-Z 7y ago
  I’ve had these exact same issues for the past 1 1/2 years. This is the time when I switched from a part-time to a full-time job, which often times leaves me utterly exhausted in the evenings and feels like I can never get to a „it‘s done“-point. Boy, am I looking forward to a break over christmas time!
ggm 7y ago
From a prior generation, I think we served you a shit sandwich. I prefer to be optimistic, and believe you guys can work it out, overcome it, and move on. I also tend to be mildly pessimistic and I think tumbrils await my cohort, for the wrongs done to future history: we really did crap in the swimming pool and expect you to learn to swim in it, and then clean it up. We were not kind. We might get what we deserve.
- adamwong246 7y ago
  We don't need to engage in inter-generational griefing. Yeah, my parents had a much nicer economy but it's not like they are in a great place now and they did not build the systems we find ourselves trapped within today. The shortness of vision can't really be blamed on any one generation. It's a collective human failure.
  - draw_down 7y ago
    I think it’s ok to acknowledge that previous generations are leaving behind a world which, in important respects, is worse than the one they inherited. All our rhetoric and the basic structure of our society assumes the reverse. On the other hand, if you’re Chinese you may not feel this way.
  - n0rbwah 7y ago
    I think it's just a few individuals of each generations that are responsible for most of the world's ills while the others were either just trying to survive or thinking "there's not much I can do about it, let's just try to have a decent life". Millenials are just at that age where their generation can start having an influence on the world. So they can still blame most of the world's ills on boomers. In 40 years, young people will blame millenials the same way boomers are blamed today. Because millenials will be the latest active representatives of a generation where a few abused their positions of power and made the world a worse place than it was.
    - foxyv 7y ago
      Don't worry, they already are. For some reason a little puke was claiming I was responsible for a policy that was created by a president when I was 5 years old. I think he was just looking for an excuse to say OK boomer and didn't care I was born in the mid 80s.
odkamkfn 7y ago
This is either the best time to be alive ever, or pretty close to it. Get some perspective.
cbm-vic-20 7y ago
GenX here: we were raised with the assumption that if we didn't die in the looming nuclear holocaust, it would be AIDS that gets us.
- ThrowawayR2 7y ago
  Add to that the recessions and stagflation of the '70s and the fear that the Japanese would overtake the US economically in the '80s.
- WorldMaker 7y ago
  We've made good progress on the AIDS crisis, but nuclear warfare seems back on the table again.

badpun 7y ago

You don't need to serve the economy, just the customers of your employer. Furthermore, even if that's too burdening, in many countries you can still move to the forest and live free of any ties to the economy.

freedomben 7y ago
Legitimately wondering, which countries are those?
- captainredbeard 7y ago
  The United States for all practical purposes. The Intermountain West is full of public land where dispersed camping is okay. You just have to move your camp every two weeks but humans lived like that for a long, long time...
- badpun 7y ago
  In Siberia there are areas where you'll be the only human for dozens of miles in any direction. Canadian north and Amazon in Brazil should be similar. Of course, these are not the friendliest environment, but neither were the US before they were civilized by "the economy", that the OP seems to loathe so much.

chrisco255 7y ago

I was just thinking we don't get enough physical activity and we eat too much junk.

Joe-Z 7y ago
I’ve had these exact same issues for the past 1 1/2 years. This is the time when I switched from a part-time to a full-time job, which often times leaves me utterly exhausted in the evenings and feels like I can never get to a „it‘s done“-point. Boy, am I looking forward to a break over christmas time!

ggm 7y ago

From a prior generation, I think we served you a shit sandwich. I prefer to be optimistic, and believe you guys can work it out, overcome it, and move on. I also tend to be mildly pessimistic and I think tumbrils await my cohort, for the wrongs done to future history: we really did crap in the swimming pool and expect you to learn to swim in it, and then clean it up. We were not kind. We might get what we deserve.

adamwong246 7y ago
We don't need to engage in inter-generational griefing. Yeah, my parents had a much nicer economy but it's not like they are in a great place now and they did not build the systems we find ourselves trapped within today. The shortness of vision can't really be blamed on any one generation. It's a collective human failure.
- draw_down 7y ago
  I think it’s ok to acknowledge that previous generations are leaving behind a world which, in important respects, is worse than the one they inherited. All our rhetoric and the basic structure of our society assumes the reverse. On the other hand, if you’re Chinese you may not feel this way.
- n0rbwah 7y ago
  I think it's just a few individuals of each generations that are responsible for most of the world's ills while the others were either just trying to survive or thinking "there's not much I can do about it, let's just try to have a decent life". Millenials are just at that age where their generation can start having an influence on the world. So they can still blame most of the world's ills on boomers. In 40 years, young people will blame millenials the same way boomers are blamed today. Because millenials will be the latest active representatives of a generation where a few abused their positions of power and made the world a worse place than it was.
  - foxyv 7y ago
    Don't worry, they already are. For some reason a little puke was claiming I was responsible for a policy that was created by a president when I was 5 years old. I think he was just looking for an excuse to say OK boomer and didn't care I was born in the mid 80s.

odkamkfn 7y ago

This is either the best time to be alive ever, or pretty close to it. Get some perspective.

cbm-vic-20 7y ago

GenX here: we were raised with the assumption that if we didn't die in the looming nuclear holocaust, it would be AIDS that gets us.

ThrowawayR2 7y ago
Add to that the recessions and stagflation of the '70s and the fear that the Japanese would overtake the US economically in the '80s.
WorldMaker 7y ago
We've made good progress on the AIDS crisis, but nuclear warfare seems back on the table again.