But I can tell you from experience that if you hear it enough, at some point you try to look into the future and ... there's just nothing there.
That is, objectively and in all situations, a Bad Thing.
Related: 6 Realities Of Growing Up Expecting The Apocalypse
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How Do You Plan When You Can't Imagine The Future?
Ask someone to justify the "We're all screwed regardless" philosophy, and they'll correctly point out that catastrophic climate change may be unstoppable, that global war is never off the table, or that the world economy is a house of cards built in the middle of a crowded dog kennel. This, they'll point out, is because the previous generation or two were so impossibly selfish that they left nothing behind for their children or grandchildren. How could they have been so shortsighted?
It's almost like, I don't know, they didn't think the future would arrive? Like they, too, thought they were all screwed either way.
Hmm. I think we're getting somewhere here.
I grew up in the 80s doing nuclear war drills, practicing scurrying under our desks at school and putting our hands on our heads (you know, to protect us from the nuclear bombs). We were told that it could happen at any moment, that there'd be no warning. You're on the playground, or watching TV, and then there's a flash and everyone is dead. Or much worse: Everyone is dead except you, and you now have severe burns and radiation poisoning. On Sundays, I went to church and heard sermons about how the world would actually end when Jesus returned, tearing open the sky and turning the oceans to blood.