As a parent of two young adults who are just starting their careers, I think about this often. When I look at them and their peers, I am genuinely optimistic about their futures. At the same time, I understand why their generation feels uncertain. Housing, climate, technology, politics, affordability and work itself all seem to be shifting under their feet.
But I also remember feeling uncertain at their age. I did not know exactly where life was going either.
The distinction, I think, is between uncertainty and despair. Uncertainty is normal. Despair is corrosive. Young people need room to be realistic about the challenges, but they also need to hear from older generations that the future is still worth building. Not because everything is fine, but because agency matters.
I especially agree with your point that we should aim to leave the place a little better than we found it. Maybe one of the most useful things we can do for younger people is not to tell them everything will be easy, but to show them that meaningful work, community engagement, and personal vision still matter.
I appreciate the work you do in this region because it helps frame the conversation around possibility rather than decline. That matters.
I cannot improve on what the other commentors have said on this subject however I would like to add to those. Every generation faces its challenges, some worst that others. In my opinion, today's generation are facing the most uncertain future in the last hundred years. To name a few hazards not already mentioned; We are in the midst of the decline and fall of the American Empire which is being replaced by China as the new global leader (such power shifts never happen without major upheaval), AI offers both incredible advances in science and medicine to the benefit of all humanity while at the same time threatening to eliminate as many as half of all existing jobs today - to say nothing of the giving government the ability to do mass surveilance on every individual in the world. Speeding the decline of the US, mentally declining and menatally ill Donald Trump is moving quickly to turn the US away from democracy and into a very dangerous fascist regime - and he has the nuclear bomb codes!! . History shows that being a neighbor to such a country has never been a good thing. Yet in the face of this, throughout history humanity has persevered and pressed ahead - we have no choice. We cannot and should not curl up into a fetal position and hide from real life. Now it the time for grit no matter how dark things look, no matter what gets thrown at people. As another commentaor said, we need positive stories and encouragement, in short we need hope - and belief in ourselves. David does this (thank you) ....and we need more Davids to give us hope and to identify opportunities where we can succeed.
Hopeful, yes. As for the older generations, listening matters as much as offering wisdom. Each generation faces new challenges, unseen by the ones before. Not necessarily worse. Different.
A sentiment is not a thought. You cannot ask someone to shake off a feeling. It is a physiological response.
The past informs the future. It does not contain it. Severe events get described as unprecedented by each generation that records them. The previous recorder probably said the same thing about the one before that.
I'm 83 years old, lying in my hospital bed waiting for the porter to take me to the operating room where they will install a pacemaker to regulate my worn-out heart. I want to live every day, every hour, every minute I can; I want to watch my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren build the exciting new world I see coming at us. Neither Global Warming nor bombs will destroy the world...it has survived much worse than that! What will destroy man's role in this wonderful world is surrendering to the complexity of the challenges facing him. The difference between hope and vision is planning and attitude. Many people are suffering from a condition that Alvin Toffler explained in his book, 'Future Shock.' In 1970, man faced the Vietnam War, atomic bombs, and a polluted world, but he survived because he kept going. Man will always adjust; he will never give up; he will find the complex solutions needed to solve the problems facing the world, and the stragglers who can't face the challenge will be dragged kicking and screaming into a better, exciting world. The Moncton Hospital, the United Nations of people fighting to ease suffering we can't eliminate, is dedicated to keeping us alive to see the future. When I needed to be shifted in my bed, a young man from Uganda took one arm and a woman from Kazakhstan took the other and dragged me. We looked at one another, all seeing the same thing, and laughed. The mood here, where people are sick, some desperately hanging onto life, is overwhelmingly positive—no one is giving up... and I'm following that crowd as long and as far as I can!
David, I strongly agree with the sentiment here.
As a parent of two young adults who are just starting their careers, I think about this often. When I look at them and their peers, I am genuinely optimistic about their futures. At the same time, I understand why their generation feels uncertain. Housing, climate, technology, politics, affordability and work itself all seem to be shifting under their feet.
But I also remember feeling uncertain at their age. I did not know exactly where life was going either.
The distinction, I think, is between uncertainty and despair. Uncertainty is normal. Despair is corrosive. Young people need room to be realistic about the challenges, but they also need to hear from older generations that the future is still worth building. Not because everything is fine, but because agency matters.
I especially agree with your point that we should aim to leave the place a little better than we found it. Maybe one of the most useful things we can do for younger people is not to tell them everything will be easy, but to show them that meaningful work, community engagement, and personal vision still matter.
I appreciate the work you do in this region because it helps frame the conversation around possibility rather than decline. That matters.
I cannot improve on what the other commentors have said on this subject however I would like to add to those. Every generation faces its challenges, some worst that others. In my opinion, today's generation are facing the most uncertain future in the last hundred years. To name a few hazards not already mentioned; We are in the midst of the decline and fall of the American Empire which is being replaced by China as the new global leader (such power shifts never happen without major upheaval), AI offers both incredible advances in science and medicine to the benefit of all humanity while at the same time threatening to eliminate as many as half of all existing jobs today - to say nothing of the giving government the ability to do mass surveilance on every individual in the world. Speeding the decline of the US, mentally declining and menatally ill Donald Trump is moving quickly to turn the US away from democracy and into a very dangerous fascist regime - and he has the nuclear bomb codes!! . History shows that being a neighbor to such a country has never been a good thing. Yet in the face of this, throughout history humanity has persevered and pressed ahead - we have no choice. We cannot and should not curl up into a fetal position and hide from real life. Now it the time for grit no matter how dark things look, no matter what gets thrown at people. As another commentaor said, we need positive stories and encouragement, in short we need hope - and belief in ourselves. David does this (thank you) ....and we need more Davids to give us hope and to identify opportunities where we can succeed.
global
Hopeful, yes. As for the older generations, listening matters as much as offering wisdom. Each generation faces new challenges, unseen by the ones before. Not necessarily worse. Different.
A sentiment is not a thought. You cannot ask someone to shake off a feeling. It is a physiological response.
The past informs the future. It does not contain it. Severe events get described as unprecedented by each generation that records them. The previous recorder probably said the same thing about the one before that.
I'm 83 years old, lying in my hospital bed waiting for the porter to take me to the operating room where they will install a pacemaker to regulate my worn-out heart. I want to live every day, every hour, every minute I can; I want to watch my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren build the exciting new world I see coming at us. Neither Global Warming nor bombs will destroy the world...it has survived much worse than that! What will destroy man's role in this wonderful world is surrendering to the complexity of the challenges facing him. The difference between hope and vision is planning and attitude. Many people are suffering from a condition that Alvin Toffler explained in his book, 'Future Shock.' In 1970, man faced the Vietnam War, atomic bombs, and a polluted world, but he survived because he kept going. Man will always adjust; he will never give up; he will find the complex solutions needed to solve the problems facing the world, and the stragglers who can't face the challenge will be dragged kicking and screaming into a better, exciting world. The Moncton Hospital, the United Nations of people fighting to ease suffering we can't eliminate, is dedicated to keeping us alive to see the future. When I needed to be shifted in my bed, a young man from Uganda took one arm and a woman from Kazakhstan took the other and dragged me. We looked at one another, all seeing the same thing, and laughed. The mood here, where people are sick, some desperately hanging onto life, is overwhelmingly positive—no one is giving up... and I'm following that crowd as long and as far as I can!