Do you have faith in the future?

For many people out there, it's a scary time right now. People have had previously incomparable experiences/news stories thrust into their lives, with those events happening so regularly that they have become numb to the horror of the situation. Other stories have been around for decades, but new twists and turns have forced large swathes of people around the world to pay attention and react. That doesn't mean all is doom and gloom right now - we are making various positive strides in multiple industries and environments, and even in the seemingly worst of times, we manage to find joy and daresay, hope. We're clearly not down and out just yet.
I'm being vague because I'd rather people talk about their own thoughts, on their own provocation, without me leading the horse to water, so to speak.

But my question is this - when you take in everything that is happening in the world; your country; your community; the good and the bad; how do you feel about the future? Do you feel joy? Satisfied? Fear? Loathing?

I worry about the future of humanity, I really do. We're living in a very politically, religiously and economically unstable time where everything is very polarised and people are getting pushed closer and closer to violent situations by this animosity.

Regardless of the amazing scientific things we have achieved in the previous years, if we don't get our shit together on the social level it means nothing. I very much see a very destructive future ahead of us if we continue on the current track we're on/

I always try to keep hope. I think hope is among the greatest virtues.

Yes, there is a lot of bad stuff going on in the world, but we've survived, on the whole, worse things. Yes, there are new dangers that didn't exist in the past (fossil fuel fueled climate change) but we can adapt to them. Adapting might be painful and chaotic and lots of people could have their lives upended (or just ended) but as a species I believe we'll survive. Not that I think survival is all that is important. I also think that the things that make a civilization and life in general worthwhile (languages, culture, art, knowledge, etc.) will mostly survive even what I consider the worst plausible scenario.

My own life and lifestyle will probably have some significant changes over the course of my lifetime, but maybe not. I'm an American and so I'm insulated in some ways from some of the dangers facing the world.

But check back with me in 5, 10 years to see how they've gone. I might have a gloomier outlook then depending on how things have gone, but I don't think we've hit a point of no return yet.

I believe society has been declining since WW1. Sure, we have grown economically, but we are losing freedoms fast. And we could definitely be doing better. Thats not to say there haven't been some good things since WW1- Civil Rights Movement, gay rights, and the defeat of communism (not a fan of the Cold War, but at least communism was stopped).

I think it will only get worse.

Not really.

Millennials and Generation Y/Z are the first generation to have a bleak or otherwise nihilistic view of the world since the World Wars. We've broken the cycle of optimism that's been prevalent in society since the American economic boom of the 1950s. And it's easy to see why. The rise of nationalism and fascism in modern-day society is oddly reminiscent of the sentiments found in a lot of early 20th century Europe which led to the Second World War. And the countries leading this nationalist charge also happen to be the ones with nuclear weapons. And we may well end up electing leaders stupid enough to use them.

We may be on the cusp of a second Cold War. And even if that doesn't get us, the global population is too busy squabbling over international politics to notice that climate change is a thing, and that it's already happening. It's quite possible that we may have already crossed the 'turning point' that scientists have discovered could push the planet into another mass extinction that we definitely won't be able to survive. But no, we don't debate that, do we, because muh immigrunts uh tukin mu juhbs

yeah I'm cynical as hell.

I am very hopeful as a person born in 1995 (I am currently 21 years old).
Gen X/Baby boomers/Older millennials try to paint younger millennials and Gen Z as lazy and entitled babies. Last time I checked, I don't sit on my butt and cry about things not being handed to me. I know plenty of people my age with Two jobs, going to school, etc. We're not lazy, we're just tired of the generations the proceeded us pulling the world down with false traditions, false hope, greed, and delusion and disrespect.
I have two jobs, I go to school, I have an internship, and I still make time to exercise and take care of my personal self. How am I lazy and entitled???

Never in my years working have I ever been disrespected by someone my age for no reason but I CONSTANTLY find myself getting yelled at, disrespected at or cursed at by people older than me. I don't want to pull a race card here, because all races can be jerks but it's mainly one that tends to do that to me because of my Hispanic heritage.
All that aside, I do believe our generation, Gen Z and millennials can rebuild and restore what the other lousy generations did. We're entitled or are we just tired of the mess you guys made for us?

I'm just reading a book about how everybody back in the 1970s expected a future of mass famines caused by overpopulation, the end of oil, economic chaos, fear and despair. In the late 80s, the expectation was for Japan to conquer the world, buy off the entire US and probably force another world war for hegemony. That's without considering the tons of doom prophets by Y2K. If you look back at what people thought about the future, the US should have imploded several dozen times by now, and Europe would have been barely over African living standards. And yet nothing of that has happened.

So, while I recognise that there are serious economic issues that probably make it hard for the new generations to have the same prospects as the older ones, I have faith on mankind. At the very least, I trust we'll find new ways to carry on. The living standards all over the world have just kept on getting better for the last two centuries, and I expect that, even if the situation stagnates until we reorganise the economic system, we'll still live better than our grandparents did. Much better.

Controversial? said:

Millennials and Generation Y/Z are the first generation to have a bleak or otherwise nihilistic view of the world since the World Wars. We've broken the cycle of optimism that's been prevalent in society since the American economic boom of the 1950s.

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"Fears of overpopulation and starvation mounted steadily... William and Paul Paddock published Famine 1975!... Philip Handler, president of the US National Academy of Sciences, concluded that the worst pessimists had been on the mark... Paul Erlich... wrote in 1974's The End of Affluence 'there would be mass starvation in the 1970s- or, at the latest, the 1980s'..."

"President Jimmy Carter spoke in July 15... 'For the first time in the history of our country, a majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years. The productivity of workers is actually dropping, and the willingness of Americans to save for the future has fallen... We have learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose".

The happy 1970s - Future Babble, Dan Gardner

I wonder, for those of us who think that things aren't looking good, what do you think is likely to happen that will make the future worse than things are now? And what should we be doing to prevent it?

Esper said:

I wonder, for those of us who think that things aren't looking good, what do you think is likely to happen that will make the future worse than things are now? And what should we be doing to prevent it?

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Mostly I think that whilst we're becoming more accepting of certain differences, as a whole we're also becoming more polarised and extreme in our views. Ultimately extremism and polarisation only lead to conflict and conflict causes problems for society.

gimmepie said:

Mostly I think that whilst we're becoming more accepting of certain differences, as a whole we're also becoming more polarised and extreme in our views. Ultimately extremism and polarisation only lead to conflict and conflict causes problems for society.

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Don't you think that we've always been polarised? It's just that the internet and sensationalism have given extremist views a bigger voice?

wakachamo said:

Don't you think that we've always been polarised? It's just that the internet and sensationalism have given extremist views a bigger voice?

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I'd agree that it isn't as extreme as it might appear. I think that more and more people are being divided into a few small camps over certain issues though.

gimmepie said:

I'd agree that it isn't as extreme as it might appear. I think that more and more people are being divided into a few small camps over certain issues though.

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Social media politics are being increasingly sectionalized, especially more recently. Identity politics are becoming more and more major. Especially among libertarians, conservatives, and democratic-socialists that dont want to identify with their former parties. Hence the current mess of a billion libertarian ideologies, Alternative-Right movement, and Green Party growth.

I don't exactly have faith in the future. It's not that I think things will get worse, but rather that they won't get any better. Things aren't exactly what I'd call great right now and I don't see that changing.

Issues like what's being described in this video are why I don't have much faith in humanity and why we must now put our faith in artificial intelligence more akin to Skynet and Ultron or extraterrestrial intelligence more akin to Parasyte and Independence Day in helping to fix the world through massive human genocide. Because they know humanity is doomed by their own hands if they still don't fix their problems despite claiming that they will in the future, so they'll insist in killing us all to quicken the process and take better care of our planet themselves.

I worry about the future of the world, my country and my couple and me, the way everything works seems awful to me, the live is every time more expensive, works are harder to get and payed less, education is every tome more of a privilege than an obligation or a wright; idk, i don't feel that the politics are leading to a good place, and that the people does nothing to change that fact, almost as if no one even care. People with money just searching more and people without it just being conformist and not trying to change.

So long as it's radiation filled and chock full of dead, sure. Otherwise, no, not really.

I have unrelenting optimism for the future. This may sound super cliche, but I still have a disney-esque picture of reality in mind in which the majority of this generation will grow up as people with voices. Wherever they end up, be they scientists or social workers or politicians or stay-at-home parents, they will be more informed and concerned about reality unlike ever before. The sad conditions the world over- terrorism, economic and social inequities, bad international policies and a broken media- this is acting like a furnace to get us all prepared and ready for the world to come. We're seeing a veritable clash of ideas about not only policies, but also about values. Even if you don't have faith in individual people, you have to admit this climate of ideas provide the best opportunity to get to know the best representations of each perspective, and have a very rounded and informed vision of the world.