4 ms·

People have been preaching the end of times for ages. "Miami Beach will be underwater in 5 years!" has been a headline my entire life. There was also "PEAK OIL"

People have been preaching the end of times for ages. "Miami Beach will be underwater in 5 years!" has been a headline my entire life. There was also "PEAK OIL" where people thought the world was going to end because we would run out of energy, turns out we found more. Journals like the Atlantic will print anything that generates clicks

aksss 5y ago
This is true, and I’m not sure that culturally we have acknowledged the consequences of involving kids in these apocalyptic concerns. Anxiety seems to be a chronic condition affecting more kids in quantity in my community than I ever recall years ago. But what do you think is going to happen when parents are constantly on about end of the world, end of democracy, the second coming of hitler and other enormous hyperbole. Of course kids take that shit more seriously than most adults, of course that will affect them when the few people they have absolute trust in are preoccupied by it. Parents/teachers have sense of existential dread = chronically anxious kid. IMO, one of the primary jobs of a parent is to create a sense of security for a developing human. Even if you believe the end is nigh, help your kid ignore it for (quite) a while, be a kid, develop and retain a sense of hope. It doesn’t help that the media is in the business of keeping the population scared about something and in a constant state of worry. This is why part of that job involves shielding kids from poisonous media for a large part of their development. Formative years should be positive experiences.
- wing-_-nuts 5y ago
  I've noticed I have a tendency to search for and latch on to the big existential crisis of the day. I have no desire to bring children into this world when climate change is largely 'baked in' and unsolvable. I can't imagine how my parents decided to have kids back at the height of the cold war when nuclear oblivion seemed right around the corner. And yet? Humanity has faced worse and still kept going. The black death? The mongol invasions? The 30 years war? All of these had absolutely huge death tolls. I can't help but think they were made of different stuff than I am.
  - wonderwonder 5y ago
    I think if ever in history there was a time to have children and to be optimistic about their future, now is it. I realize I am speaking as someone enjoying all the benefits of living in the first world but we are mastering science, lifespan is increasing, our ability to fight disease is growing, wars are fewer and farther between, quality of life is improving across the world. There are of course outliers that are very much surfaced via the media such as the refugee crisis. The fact that there is a place for the refugees to go though is even an improvement even though their circumstances are terrible. The threat of global nuclear war was an unstoppable idea a few decades ago, but war did not happen so all the worry was for nothing. With global warming its a steady thing that humanity can adapt to as it happens; technological advancement does not end, we will deal with it. Have kids if you want them and teach them to feel optimistic about the future, humanity is young and we are just getting started. I have kids and I am thrilled about the opportunities they are going to have growing up.
- sjwalter 5y ago
  Matt Taibi was on Joe Rogan a few days ago and during the interview Joe related a story about one of his Israeli friends. Joe went over to his friend's home for dinner, and hung out with his family, and the entire time the friend and his wife and kids were dancing and singing and celebrating, for no particular reason. Joe asked why are you Israeli's so happy? The friend said that when you live in Israel, you live under the perpetual notion that a rocket strike will kill you at any moment. So you don't need a momento mori, you have death hanging over your head at every moment, so every moment is imbued with a heightened preciousness, so you engage happiness as much as possible, whenever possible. I wish the modern, globally-homogenized mass culture that washes over us enjoyed this kind of apocalyptic thinking, rather than the dour, annoying "omg the ghgs!" crap we've got.
nouveaux 5y ago
I agree that it is problematic for the media to be so hyperbolic. However, are you saying that Florida is not having regular and more historical flooding? If so, why is articles about frequent floodings[0] wrong? Regarding peak oil, geologists pretty much know where all the oil is. Finding a little more oil did not solve the problem. What solved the problem was the shift to electric cars and fracking for gas. These two things triggered a reduction in drilling[1] that caused the collapse of Venezuela. [0] https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/florida-keys/article236261848.html?fbclid=IwAR0sj-XanqVg0w0Vji42_iiGJ-oG9iu76570IDtZfAhAFAGxcaO1adxXD1I https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/florida-key... [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2016-oil-rigs/ https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2016-oil-rigs/

aksss 5y ago

This is true, and I’m not sure that culturally we have acknowledged the consequences of involving kids in these apocalyptic concerns. Anxiety seems to be a chronic condition affecting more kids in quantity in my community than I ever recall years ago. But what do you think is going to happen when parents are constantly on about end of the world, end of democracy, the second coming of hitler and other enormous hyperbole. Of course kids take that shit more seriously than most adults, of course that will affect them when the few people they have absolute trust in are preoccupied by it. Parents/teachers have sense of existential dread = chronically anxious kid. IMO, one of the primary jobs of a parent is to create a sense of security for a developing human. Even if you believe the end is nigh, help your kid ignore it for (quite) a while, be a kid, develop and retain a sense of hope. It doesn’t help that the media is in the business of keeping the population scared about something and in a constant state of worry. This is why part of that job involves shielding kids from poisonous media for a large part of their development. Formative years should be positive experiences.

wing-_-nuts 5y ago
I've noticed I have a tendency to search for and latch on to the big existential crisis of the day. I have no desire to bring children into this world when climate change is largely 'baked in' and unsolvable. I can't imagine how my parents decided to have kids back at the height of the cold war when nuclear oblivion seemed right around the corner. And yet? Humanity has faced worse and still kept going. The black death? The mongol invasions? The 30 years war? All of these had absolutely huge death tolls. I can't help but think they were made of different stuff than I am.
- wonderwonder 5y ago
  I think if ever in history there was a time to have children and to be optimistic about their future, now is it. I realize I am speaking as someone enjoying all the benefits of living in the first world but we are mastering science, lifespan is increasing, our ability to fight disease is growing, wars are fewer and farther between, quality of life is improving across the world. There are of course outliers that are very much surfaced via the media such as the refugee crisis. The fact that there is a place for the refugees to go though is even an improvement even though their circumstances are terrible. The threat of global nuclear war was an unstoppable idea a few decades ago, but war did not happen so all the worry was for nothing. With global warming its a steady thing that humanity can adapt to as it happens; technological advancement does not end, we will deal with it. Have kids if you want them and teach them to feel optimistic about the future, humanity is young and we are just getting started. I have kids and I am thrilled about the opportunities they are going to have growing up.
sjwalter 5y ago
Matt Taibi was on Joe Rogan a few days ago and during the interview Joe related a story about one of his Israeli friends. Joe went over to his friend's home for dinner, and hung out with his family, and the entire time the friend and his wife and kids were dancing and singing and celebrating, for no particular reason. Joe asked why are you Israeli's so happy? The friend said that when you live in Israel, you live under the perpetual notion that a rocket strike will kill you at any moment. So you don't need a momento mori, you have death hanging over your head at every moment, so every moment is imbued with a heightened preciousness, so you engage happiness as much as possible, whenever possible. I wish the modern, globally-homogenized mass culture that washes over us enjoyed this kind of apocalyptic thinking, rather than the dour, annoying "omg the ghgs!" crap we've got.

nouveaux 5y ago

I agree that it is problematic for the media to be so hyperbolic. However, are you saying that Florida is not having regular and more historical flooding? If so, why is articles about frequent floodings[0] wrong? Regarding peak oil, geologists pretty much know where all the oil is. Finding a little more oil did not solve the problem. What solved the problem was the shift to electric cars and fracking for gas. These two things triggered a reduction in drilling[1] that caused the collapse of Venezuela. [0] https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/florida-keys/article236261848.html?fbclid=IwAR0sj-XanqVg0w0Vji42_iiGJ-oG9iu76570IDtZfAhAFAGxcaO1adxXD1I https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/florida-key... [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2016-oil-rigs/ https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2016-oil-rigs/