This message is for the children. It is not for adults, especially people over 30. It may sound like an old hippy cliche, but you just can't trust us. More to the point, you can't change us. For all practical purposes, we're a lost cause. We're simply not capable of making the changes needed to save this world. We are beyond redemption, set in our ways and locked into a perception of reality which does not include taking the kinds of actions that are going to be necessary in the coming decades.
And, let's be blunt here, we only have maybe a few decades left to do anything to address the mess we've made. Socially, politically, economically and, most critically, environmentally, the bills are all coming due at the same time and we're just standing around with our empty pockets out-turned and stupid expressions of confusion plastered on our faces. We're a goddamned disgrace and anyone who can't admit that at this point is a delusional fool.
So I'm going to first say, I'm sorry. I really am. I know that's a useless sentiment to offer because it helps nothing, but I do want you to know that I wish things had been different. I come from a generation who latched onto the optimism and idealism that, through technology, we'd be going out among the stars and living the dream of peace, prosperity and possibility. What we didn't count on was the inexorable inertia of ignorance and selfishness that would drag us down, like a stone chained to our collective ankle, into the depths of misinformation, mysticism, myopia and madness.
Every institution we've created to help better our civilization has been corrupted by the cancer of greed. Our educational systems work tirelessly to make us stupid. Our religions cling steadfastly to ignorance as a spiritual value. Our courts have severed the arms from the scales of justice and used them to build factories for slave labor. Our healthcare has turned sickness into an investment opportunity. Our bureaucrats have turned the craft of governance and administration into a shell game, where voting is a con and there's never anything under any of the shells. Only our sciences have offered any form of advancement, yet every step forward has been perverted for the sake of destruction, exploitation, incarceration, surveillance and manipulation.
Collectively, we all stand on the precipice of doom and the wall of garbage we have created behind us is about ready to push us over the edge. The hour is upon us. The time for procrastination has passed. There is no savior coming to offer us salvation. There is only the desperation of the young left to bring us any shred of hope because we have taken their future and sold it and what we bought with it is a fraud and a deception. We've squandered it so a few people could live a life of luxury while everyone else withered in squalor. Countless generations before us have lived, suffered and died in order to crawl out of the mud, only to have it all come to an end with a couple of generations of entitled, privileged brats.
The protests of the past have been pointless and achieved nothing. The so-called "enlightenment" of the 60's youth movements were no more than a parade of paisley pretensions. We thought that "art" was enough to make a difference and change the course of history. It was all merely noise and flashing lights, "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing". We were naive and stupid to think anyone was paying attention. In the end, all those efforts added up to no more than entertainment and diversion from the real problems that were piling up all around us, drowning us in the continental sized floating trash heaps that now choke the oceans.
What I'm trying to get at, dear youth, is that you're fucked (pardon my language). Protests and songs and letters to the editor and elections and all of that rubbish are not going to save you. The hard truth is that, if you want a future, you're going to have to get it together and take control away from the adults and they're not going to let it go without a fight. Unfortunately, your parents haven't done you any favors with all of that coddling and cuddling and padding and protecting you from peanuts and persecution. That's assuming you're privileged enough to have parents who cared about you in the first place and if you were affluent enough for them to wrap you in that bubble. And, if you are that kind of kid, you'll probably be just as useless as the adults you need to take down.
What's coming is going to get messy and you're going to have to get your hands dirty in order to do the work that needs to be done. You won't be able to worry about being nice about it either. You can't fret about who you're going to offend or if someone's feelings are going to get hurt. You can't be bothering with respecting "beliefs". All these imaginary "gods" have done nothing but perpetuate the ignorance that has precipitated this mess in the first place. Faith is finished. Only actions matter now; decisive, definitive, productive ACTIONS!
I am a dinosaur, gawking stupidly at the sky as the asteroid of my generation's hubris is about to slam into this Earth. I will not survive it. Whether you do will depend on your ability to learn from our mistakes and not make them again. It's not going to be easy and I can't guarantee it's even possible for I don't truly grasp the extent of the damage that has been done. We may not leave anything at all in our wake capable of sustaining anyone. Which is why the urgency for you to take over has never been greater and will only become more dire as each day passes. Don't wait. Don't waste time. That was our lot and you can see where it got us. It's the only chance you have, so TAKE IT!
