Millennials Say The Future Has Passed

            Reports indicate that many American Millennials aren’t saving for the future…because they don’t believe there will be one.in their lifetimes. A 2018 study by the American Psychological Association revealed that an astounding 72% of Millennials said their emotional well-being is affected by the inevitability of climate change, the highest of any age group. Why then isn’t the emotional well-being of 100% of Millennials affected by the inevitability of death? And another question for Millennials: can you name another time when the planet’s climate changed significantly? I can. Before there was one……until there was one. Planet or climate. Take your pick.

Why is this group so glum? Climate change, of course. Fully 88% of Millennials believe in man-caused global warming. 69% believe it will significantly impact them The number of young people reporting symptoms of serious depression increased by 52% from 2005 to 2017, according to a study published in the March issue of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. Various other mental health issues also are afflicting youth at much higher rates than in the past. Some experts attribute this to the increased use of digital media, while others note the rise in “eco-anxiety.” I would cite the mass media, professors and the “higher educational” system in general for the recent breakdown in sanity. And, for-personal-profit-and-power scaremongers like the ditzy Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the repulsive Michael Moore.

The author of the afore-mentioned study said of young people: “There is a certain fatalism in this population relative to more recent generations. Psychologically, this population has had more shocks to expectations about their futures than past generations. From a perception point of view, I hear a lot of cynicism about the ability to build retirement savings or whether they will be able to retire at all.”

Say what?!

Yes, past generations had it easy, contending only with throwing off tyranny, the Civil War, World War I, the Stock Market Crash of 1929, the ensuing Great Depression, World War II, Viet Nam, potential nuclear annihilation, and Jimmy Carter. Whereas Millennials had to deal with the dot-com bubble bursting, the ensuing housing crisis, and the lack of universally available “all-gender” bathrooms.

Young folks are being fed a steady diet of fake news, science and weather. A 2016 study from something called NextGen Climate, a progressive organization dedicated to environmental advocacy, purported to show that a college graduate belonging to the class of 2015 will lose more than $126,000 in lifetime income directly due to climate-change-induced costs.

Millennials are living in the wealthiest time in history. Nearly all of them have smart phones, computers and (more than) enough to eat. Capitalism has lifted much of the world out of abject poverty and into relative ease, despite the Earth’s growing population and the past predictions of “experts” who forecast massive starvation, dire energy shortages, and global cooling, among other catastrophes that never came to pass. Yet many have soured on capitalism, the very goose that laid the golden egg. Many believe capitalism is in its final stages. 68% of Millennials viewed capitalism positively in 2010, yet only 45% did in 2017, seven years later. Many say “the system doesn’t work.”

Ironically, in today’s world, unlike in days of yore, the most educated people are often the least informed. Ancient humans witnessed eclipses, meteors and other celestial (and weather-related) phenomena and believed them to be omens or warnings from the gods. Modern progressives witness a hurricane, tornado or fluctuating temperatures and essentially scream that the sky is falling and we are all going to die. And they blame people. Maybe not themselves, but others.

Look around you Millennials. Then take a good, hard look at what’s happening in Venezuela. Maybe travel to Cuba or North Korea. Put down your phone and start reading 1984, A Brave New World, Animal Farm, Atlas Shrugged or The Gulag Archipelago.

There have been alternating ice ages and periods of great warmth since time immemorial. Floods, biblical and otherwise, have been occurring for as long as droughts have been around. Storms rage and calm returns. To everything there is a season. “Change” is the easiest thing to predict.

The next easiest thing to predict is what would happen to the United States under socialist government. Millennials—and everyone else-- would be guaranteed a future of economic, political, personal…and, yes, environmental…degradation and despair.