Do our children have a future?

I haven't posted at DU for a long, long time. Today, though, something occurred to me, and I thought DU and all of the posters here would be a perfect sounding board.

During lunch, someone mentioned something about their child's graduation this year (my oldest daughter graduated in June), and it occurred to me that somewhere deep in my consciousness, I've turned off the idea of that my youngest daughter (now 13) will have the opportunity to go on to college like her sister. In fact, without admitting it to myself, really, I've had a steadily growing, grim outlook for my children's futures. Since the beginning of this hellish eight-year period, I seem to have resigned myself to the fact that my children will never have the opportunities generations before them had.

When I realized I felt this way, I wondered how many other people do, too(and maybe don't like to admit it)...and I also wondered if this type of mentality has occurred in previous times of distress in the U.S., such as during the Vietnam years?

I don't have an answer. Unless world population and global warming can be controlled, it does look rather bleak from where I am sitting.

but it is not one I envy them.

Higher education priced out of reach. Collapse of democracy. Water shortages. Peak oil. 11 billion world population. Pandemics.

Maybe, if they are lucky, our childrens' children will colonize space, and leave this worn out mudball behind them.

who have tied up ownership of all means of survival.

I share your sorrow.

It just kills me to be with my girls and listen to them making all of these glorious plans--as should be the right of every human being--when deep down inside, I fear what their future holds. It makes me feel like a liar.

and she is searching for ways to just survive what she knows is coming. It is fucking killing me.

Every generation makes the mistake of looking through the prism of whence they grew up, and not being able to see a change optimistically, a change that always comes. 25-30 years ago who would have thought of the great expanse of the tech field, the medical field? Not many. The opportunities will be there, they will just be different from what we recognize today. Throughout history countries have witnessed dark periods where undoubtedly parents have thought the exact same thing, yet after thousands and thousands of years you still see progression in the human condition. Pessimism breeds pessimism, and it is important for those of us who have kids to be optimistic no matter if we see a reason to be.

I'm 22 and have already made that choice. Besides, I can't afford to take care of myself, much less any new lives I'd bring into the world.

I can tell you--if I knew then what I know now, I would be right beside you in that decision. I remember when my oldest was born, my father said something to the effect of, "I don't know that I would be bringing children into this world the way things are going..." I was so angry with him for that! I could not understand why he would say such an awful thing at such a happy time. Now I know precisely what he meant, unfortunately.

but that's been said for every generation since we exited the Dark Ages.

Each generation is presented with different challenges and opportunities.

My son is almost three years old. His world is full of opportunities for personal fulfillment and change for the good.

And my world is too.

than in any time in history. Hell, if our children have no future, what are we fighting for?!

I love your attitude...and I'm hoping for the same thing right along with the best of you.

Which is why I bought "2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl"... ;)

:thumbsup:

Not while any damn bush is in the white house or any state government. solidarity forever. no more bushes in the ever present or future to come.

We will attempt to control every aspect of life even more than we do now. As that is happening, we'll be frustrated at how that control never quite becomes complete. That frustration will require more control. It's a long dance. We just keep going around in circles. It's a relentless chase for perfection though. The most efficienct single way to live. That's what this whole thing is about.

More surveillance, more data mining, more DNA manipulation, more technological fixes to environmental problems, more laws, more power to the state, more power to the corporation, more mass production, more automation, more people, more pesticides, more pollution, more class war, more of everything. Less privacy though. Less environment, less free will, less choice, less chance, less diversity, fewer ways of seeing the world, fewer ways of being in the world, etc. It's the business we've chosen.

so much more than i did at that age and she's also had more opportunities than i did and her childhood so far has been far different than my own and for that i am grateful. I look at kids and especially babies and they always make me feel hopeful.

I wonder what the pessimists were saying in the '20's during the great depression? Many people want to think we live in the worst of times for the US. This gives them something to bitch about and a raison d'être.

I know my kids will have a great future and speak to them about college almost every day. Not sure how it will be paid for, but it will be.

Be optimistic! The motivated kids will always have a future.

Good luck!

I'm very optimistic about the future of humans. The advances in technology, civilization, education, communication, etc... have been tremendous over the last 35 years. The next 35 are going to be even better.

disclosure - I do not have kids but plan to have 4.

the result would probably be about 50-50.

Right now I don't think we really know what the future will hold. But we need to see a huge change of course very very soon.