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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/sep/30/our-leaders-are-collaborators-with-fossil-fuel-colonialists-this-is-the-source-of-our-communal-dread>
"“Kids these days are such snowflakes! So flaccid and self-involved, so doomy
and anxious. If it’s not the drugs, it’s the screen time, right? I mean, what’s
their problem?”
I try to sidestep conversations like these. Engaging saps so much time and
energy. But avoiding them leaves me feeling dirty. Not because I’ve forgone an
opportunity to win an argument, but because I know I’ve failed to defend those
who need and deserve my solidarity.
The awkward truth is that the mature-aged complainers offering such judgments
are not imagining things. The dejection of young people is palpable. But the
mistake many of their elders make is assuming that every instance of slumped
posture and downcast mien is an expression of choice, a pose being struck for
social effect, because, often as not, what they’re observing is a logical
response to the world around them and their prospects within it.
And this air of sadness is hardly confined to hipster cafes, shopping malls and
the bedrooms of adolescents. Have you looked in the mirror lately? Have you
noticed the glassy stares and heard the listless tones of your middle-aged
neighbours and thirtysomething colleagues? Have you considered how we entertain
ourselves, the warm bath of false cheer and cheap consolation we wallow in?
Trauma specialist Thomas Hübl calls it “collective numbness”, an affect that
masks the underworld of stultifying compulsions, addictions and evasions we
prefer not to discuss.
This is a form of communal anguish. If it seems more evident in young people it
may be because they have fewer layers of insulation and camouflage. The
corrosive burn of their distress is not as easily dampened by the comforts and
diversions that blind their elders."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
