[BlisteredWhippet]

I agree that the 30 yo. arbitrary line is an artifact of stupid-headed youthful idealism and inexperience.

The "deal with it" generation are children. To conceptualize in generational terms, you are mistaken unless you believe that the current crop of 20-somethings are going to come into political and social power, riding a wave of social and political upheaval. What I see is a completely conventional generation without a clue.

The reason I think the 5 year olds comprise the critical generation is that it will take about 15 years for the fan-distributed shit to really start to stink; and the problems snowball to become truly unbearable. At this point organized political and social movements will occur. This 20 something generation is just a party generation, at least from an American generational perspective.

Everybody's going to "deal with it" that is alive, it just not today's 20-somethings that will be on the ground fighting for table scraps. Today's 20 somethings will be tomorrows mid-30 somethings, facing early-career and family dramas on a personal scale. The me and mine paradigm.

The real job of overthrowing the status quo will fall to those who see the real problem as collective. Today's 20 somethings are too individualistic, too stress-averse. They are, by and large, simply seizing the social and economic advantages left available by an absent and non-cooperative X Gen.

[Bas]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') agree that the 30 yo. arbitrary line is an artifact of stupid-headed youthful idealism and inexperience.

[vision-master]

In about another year, I'll be htting age 55. I quit working at age 50 & figure I'll suck on the Government tit as long as possible. I'm enjoying my non-working years NOW, while the party is still going! Please don't wake me up when it's over........

[Heineken]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Bas', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') agree that the 30 yo. arbitrary line is an artifact of stupid-headed youthful idealism and inexperience.

[Bas]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', '
')
Well, you started the thread, Bas, and created the 30-year line in the sand---arbitrarily perhaps, but it naturally invites conflict between those on either side of the line. So if you've started a war, you have to take some responsibility.

I've seen a lot of younger PO.com members bashing older members over the years, and vice versa, and I've participated in some of that bashing myself. The young blame the old for wrecking the world and their future, and the old blame the young for being do-nothing apathetics, hard-wired to their Ipods.

The sad thing is that there is a lot of truth to these generalizations, although of course also many, many exceptions.

Anyway, a culture of intergenerational blame bodes very ill for the future and is another piece in the kaleidoscopic array of reasons I'm a doomer.

[Grautr]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('FreakOil', 'U')nder 30, single, not children. I think that's going to be a major advantage in making it through post-Peak turmoil, whatever form it comes in. There's no burden, and a young, strong man would have an easier time finding work, which I'm guessing is going to be more physically intensive than shuffling papers.

[BlisteredWhippet]

I am suggesting your math is off. Of course, thats based on your perception of future events. I don't forsee real "shit-dealing" behavior starting up until 15 years have gone by. At which point, today's carefree 20 year olds will be mired in the triple threat of personal relationships, kids, and careers. The whole idea of a generational response to a problem like this suggests a massive social shift. For the next 15 years, "dealing with it" will be, in my view, people using less energy, eating less meat, etc. After that 15 year period, the issues are going to be using NO energy, eating NO meat, an so forth. At which point I imagine the immense socioeconomic pressure will coincide with boomers moving out of the age range of relevancy and ceding power to the Gen X and Yers. I suggest todays 5 year olds will then truly have the responsibility for "dealing with it", in the sense that no part of their lives would not be lived inside a envelope of a sense of limitless possibilities and resources.

[Bas]

Fair enough; in the end nobody can predict the future. The shit might start coming down hard in a few years, or it might be a gradual decline in which adaptation of societies go smoother than our best expectations. Like I said before in this thread; the younger people are, the more shit they can expect and I also suggested you can define this generation as roughly the people born after 2000; your 5 year olds.

[BlisteredWhippet]

On the other hand, the kids will have the least to lose, and be sufficiently deprived to take advantage of opportunities for creativity and imagination. I think the extent to which they see the possibilities and are successful is dependent on the previous generation- their parents- capability to enlighten their position of total ignorance.

In other words, mom and dad are going to have to figure out how to not pass on a reliance on high-energy lifestyle values. My fear is that many won't do much more than pass on a dependence mindset. This could lead to a generation of easily controllable, eager, authoritarian types.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Bas', 'm')aybe the older you are, the less you really care about it as you may expect it won't affect you as much.

[Bas]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Bas', 'm')aybe the older you are, the less you really care about it as you may expect it won't affect you as much.

[Heineken]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Bas', 'm')aybe the older you are, the less you really care about it as you may expect it won't affect you as much.

[Bas]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', '
')
The funny thing is, as a lot of us get older, we tend to care more, not less. Life becomes even more precious, and we get used to being alive.

This is one of those things the young can't understand because they haven't been there. They tend to dismiss older people as not mattering or as not fully living because, after all, "they'll be dead soon anyway."

I've worked myself, during my half-century, into a mental state in which I care very much about being alive and doing stuff, but when my health and functioning fall below a certain threshold known only to me, I will detach myself very quickly from it all. I am very comfortable with this strategy for dealing with both life and death, including the monkey wrench the convergent catastrophes have thrown into the mechanism.

[Heineken]

Bas, I was reacting to a number of posters' comments, not just yours.

I appreciate your clarification.

Generalizations are always very dangerous, n'est c'est pas?

[rdberg1957]

Fifty here. Not so young, not old as some would say. Lots of folks at my age and above not caring, oblivious. Some who care deeply. Certainly age changes perspectives.