Does the Future Worry You?

If the future worries you, what is it specifically that needs sorting out?
If not, what makes you an optimist?

 

LOL! We're screwed. There is no way to head off climate change now. We can still probably avoid a worst-case scenario but the future will be ugly. Many places where people live now will be uninhabitable. There will be more of the following and increasingly so for the foreseeable future [at least a century]: Devastating floods and fires are a certainty and are already with us. Drought and water shortages, famine and food shortages, pandemics, infestations by insects and rodents... The mass exodus of climate refugees with increasing regularity and amplitude, which will lead to civil unrest and war. People think they hate immigrants now? Just wait! This is nothing!!!!

People today have left challenges for their children and grandchildren, and their children, greater than any seen by them or their parents, or their grandparents. It is truly a crime against humanity in the most profound sense.

At least I can go to my grave knowing I spent a lifetime doing my best to help avoid this.

 

No. Covid was an interesting test run. I’m an optimist because my preparedness for unfortunate circumstances turned out to be quite effective.

There are great opportunities in change for those willing to adapt and who have prepared themselves to do so.

I think Toby Hemenway has the best summation of the path to peace of mind and prosperity in a naturally “uncertain” world.

 

There's much to agree with here and what I don't quite agree with is mostly because I'm still trying to wrap my head around it.

I think COVID is the 5th or 6th pandemic I've survived in my life and I've gotten through it like the other ones- try to stay healthy in general and ignore it specifically (my first pandemic it turns out was when I was 6. I'd never heard of it until COVID became front page news. That's just how my folks rolled. Seemed to work fine.)

The only thing I'd add is don't trust government. They generally don't have your best interests at heart. But if some politician is actually doing things to fight back against his/her own government, support them for all it's worth.

And a couple years ago I read about a statistician whose day job was historian that pointed out that societies go through regular periods of unrest and upheaval like what we're experiencing currently. It usually lasts 10-15 years or so and ends when the purveyors lose their heads (literally). By my count the triggering event was in 2007 meaning we've got about 1-2 years left. It may be scary, but you can already see the pins being knocked out from under it.

Have faith.

 

It’s taken me a decade to accept a lot of what permaculture offers. I’m still not what you would call a permaculturist, but a lot of it has been a part of my life since I was a child. We just didn’t call it that!

Yes, the infection fatality rate of Covid luckily turned out to be very low. Extremely low for people in good health.

The test run for me was learning how being prepared allows you to be stress free by not having to worry about illness and more importantly supply chain issues and social/government pressure to conform to what were mostly incorrect/ineffective mitigations anyway.

During Covid I didn’t have to go anywhere for essentials. I didn’t have to worry about doing without. My personal life remained stress free and quite enjoyable. Prior to Covid, being prepared was academic. Now I understand the value of not being reliant on others for physical needs or correct information. Being prepared was one of the best decisions of my life.

No kidding. I spent hours and hours on PF during Covid offering better mitigations to interested parties than the government offered. Your health was towards the bottom of the government’s list of priorities. They intentionally withheld the best mitigations from citizens in many cases.

It doesn’t have to be scary. The less one is dependent on government and other institutions the safer and happier one will be in times of distress. I’ve found it’s much more productive to spend energy on becoming resilient than to spend energy trying to get politicians elected to take care of you.

 

Oh no! Not GoreBull Warming AGAIN!

 

The country is falling apart. From 9.6% inflation killing the low and middle classes, violent crime raging out of control as states eliminate bail and let criminals roam free, as our children are indoctrinated about an evil/racist America in school, as we run like cowards from enemies in Afghanistan while arming terrorists there, as we shoot ourselves in the foot concerning energy independence and lose our rights to speak freely and bear arm... its all coming apart. I don't see civil war... but I see impending chaos as a nation that fought for freedom so many times against external enemies, is forced to fight the same fight against internal enemies.

 

No not really. Time keeps On slipping slipping slipping into the future and one day it will pass me up and it will belong to the living.

 

One of my biggest fears is the effectivement of climate change on demographics.
More and more people will be forced to leave their homes and head to more stable temporate places even including the polar régions.
The economic, social and political effects will be hugely damaging , as food and water resources are challenged anyway, let alone for a fast growing but bounded territory.
The strongest instincts of people often include self préservation coupled with a kneejerk superiority over those who look, speak and pray differently. Our efforts to level up minorities rest on a very brittle layer of civility which does not support compétition for basic resources.
The inevitable world war 3 will be about clashes between human rights, resources and nationalism. If the nuclear option is not deplored, the result will be à global extermination of non white, non western races followed by wars between the stronger of those left standing.
IOW à distillation of all those undercurrents of the search for power that have been tempered throughout history by dispersal will create a " big bang" of the human occupation on this planet.

 

Why worry?
Worried about your health?
You will either get well or you will die. Either way you have nothing to worry about.

Who can add a second to their existence by worrying? All worrying can do is make you not enjoy the available time you have.

 

I'd rather spend my remaining days standing tall, unburdened by a tyrannical government, and enjoying liberty than spending it on my knees being bled dry financially with unjust taxes, threatened by out of control violence, and being told how to live.

 

Me too. That's why I do not vote for Democrats.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if these concerns become sidelined when you can't find enough food to eat or water to drink, when immigration becomes inevitable and bottlenecks global trade.
I read this week of people smugglers flying migrants in and out of international airports. There is the possibility of migrants island hoping to find ways to survive.but you won't even need the physical présence of immigrants. The economic collapse of advanced countries will completely destroy the banking and investment systems that support so much of the wealth in the West.
International wars will reduce national wealth and reconfigure relative currency values. I wouldn't be surprised if the Yuan becomes the standard currency.
The current left/right dichotomy will be about very different things. And very much more dangerous.

 

Be afraid. Live in a constant state of low grade fear and anxiety.

Be afraid of covid, or is it money pox now ? ... Oh I'm sorry, I meant to say monkey pox....

Be afraid of hurricanes and tornadoes and droughts and fires and rising ocean levels.

Be afraid of famine and lack of clean drinking water. Be afraid of rising crimes and crumbling economies....

Be afraid of your neighbors because they might secretly be domestic terrorists, turn them into the federal government if they so much as sneeze sideways...

Be afraid for your health and become a hypochondriac who relies on big pharma just to stay alive....

Be afraid of the next pandemic and order everything from Amazon and make sure to hit all of your packages with your ultraviolet sanitization chamber before it comes into your house. Don't forget to stock up on mask and hand sanitizer and Lysol. Maybe a pallet or two of toilet paper? Be afraid to do anything but isolate inside of your cell.... I mean your house...

Be afraid about your financial situation and stay awake at night worrying about bills and the mortgage and so on and so forth...

I'm sure I missed a few things but the moral of the story is, don't forget to worry yourself to sleep each night and remember that only the government can save you if you vote correctly.

And by the way...... Boo!!! Booga booga, gonna gitchya!!!! Boo!!!

 

You could very well be right. That's why when I retired five years ago my wife and I found a relatively safe place and have been "preparing" for the coming chaos.

 

Too many folks like that alright. We are quite safe and ok... well... unless it REALLY gets bad. My only comment is that it is the government that has become the enemy. I'm so old that I can remember when we trusted the government.

 

In today's world our own well-being is the responsibility of each of us. Far too many rely on others to do it for them. There are tons of people living in Florida right now that don't have two weeks of basic supplies should a hurricane come.

And should that come to pass and they are unprepared they will cry for the government to come and save them.

This is sort of related to another point I realized long ago.... It is your responsibility to know you're rights because no one is going to know them for you... To the extent that you do not know your rights you effectively do not have them....... Much like no one is going to take care of you in times of unrest or upheaval.

Those who depend upon others will soon find themselves let down when it matters most.

People, not a fan.

 

A short, concise description of PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. Good post. There is so much more (earning education, earning medical care, planning for retirement, etc) but your post really describes an ATTITUDE that is missing more and more today. Thanks.

 

~ The older I get , the less I worry , the more I enjoy coffee ... and the younger everyone else seems .

 

I hear ya. My haydays are over. But I worry about my grandkids. I'm loving retirement. I try to be up by the crack of noon every day, without fail. The jacuzzi eats up a lot of my time... but what can you do?

 

~ Yup ...

 

We're so dramatic.

We're going to be fine no matter what happens.

 

No. I never worry about things I can't control or help. What happens in the future is completely out of my hand and my ability to do anything about it. Why worry about it?

 

This reminds me of something I just saw on Facebook and it's true for a lot of people.

" People ask why I work so hard, because I can't screw up.. . I have no one else to fall back on. I am my support network ".


And two years of full-time work I have missed 3 days. Once for illness and the other two days, because I had both ankles injured at one time.

I tell my coworkers if I don't show up for work it means one of several things, I'm very ill or injured... Or I am either dead or committed or incarcerated or in the hospital or being held kidnapped somehow.

I cannot afford for my boss not to depend on me anymore than I can depend not to depend on me

 

~ Self-reliance is a sign of maturity. Jazz and classical music are a sign of intelligence.