The ‘Better Than Nothing’ Generation

We know in our hearts the terrible fate awaiting today’s children, climate annihilation’s mass extermination, nothing less than generational genocide. Some argue that the Global South’s young will suffer first, because of their poverty.  Others believe the richer Global North, with less ocean and a rapidly melting polar ice cap, will overheat long before the South.  Regardless, baked-in consequences of climate collapse equal billions of deaths.

 But what about Us? Those of us in our 30’s and 40’s?  What about Me, Me, Me!

 I recently wrote about how reaching higher states of consciousness is a double-sided blade, western individualist ‘good vibes only’ ideology that turns seeking consciousness into a mental health ‘bypass’. Just like when doctors take veins from a patient's leg and use them to bypass the blood flow, clogged by years of overeating foods saturated with unhealthy fats, a symptom of factory farming, which in itself is another ‘bypass’. Instead of remedying the problem, instead of finding the root cause, we patch it all up with duct tape. 

 It’s same with ‘education’, and when I say education - I’m referring to the bullshit capitalist conditioning that shaped us. What I mean is that we were thought, or trained rather, to think rationally within a mathematical, utilitarian based framework, our minds shaped to ‘manage’ corporations. But this too is a double-sided blade for status quo. We were trained to respect science, to look at quantifiable evidence and come to a conclusion using the scientific method, correct? Now in no universe, in no way possible, do the numbers being pushed to us make any sense. We know NET ZERO by 2050 is not enough, we know you cannot slash carbon emissions or plastic production or wildlife decimation while growing the economy AND remaining profitable. 

So, what do we do? We tell ourselves: it’s better than nothing. 

Fully aware that our actions will not improve the situation, not really. They gave us recycling; we have more plastic in our blood than ever. They gave us electric cars; now children in colonized nations are mining lithium and cobalt. They told us go vegan, but the avocadoes we eat destroy communities, and food waste in the west is higher than ever. We’re sold sustainable fashion, fully aware that it's just a buzz word to make us feel less guilty. 

We are the better than nothing generation. We love the word “privilege” because it cloaks the reality of the class struggle, and certainly, we don’t want to offend our friends about their ill-gained wealth.  We’re trapped, lying to ourselves rather than looking the ugly truth long and hard in the eye because the comfort and luxury we’ve grown accustomed too has made us soft and spiritually bankrupt.  We are the better than nothing generation.