Have you been to one of the marches of the climate strikers? The young people who are organizing against climate change.
It’s so wonderful to see them in action—high schoolers taking charge. They’re not just following along in the wake of a demonstration put together by seasoned activists. They’re doing their own organizing. They’re building their own movement. They’re making their own decisions.
And middle schoolers are joining them in this. I never could have imagined such a thing when I was that young.
So, yes, these marches are inspiring. Uplifting. Energizing.
But have you heard those same young people say…
“We don’t get to have a future.”
I’ve listened to the speeches and read the articles by Boomers—my generation— who are saying to young people…
You are the ones who will save humankind.
And maybe they slip in this caveat…
By the way, you have twelve years to pull this off.
And then they finish with a cheery compliment…
We believe in you!
On the surface, this sounds like a vote of confidence and the simple passing of the baton. But it’s not….
It’s a dump job.
I’m an old guy now. My life will be coming to a close sooner rather than later. By the time the worst of the environmental crisis hits, I’ll be gone…
But these young people will be here for it.
They’ll be assaulted by climate disasters and dangerous political shifts that will likely turn brutal.
Things are so much darker for them than they were for my generation when we were starting out. And it seems unfair for those who are so young to have to face something as monstrous as the very real possibility of human extinction even before they’ve figured out who they are or what they want to do with their lives.
I remember back in the sixties, how optimistic we were…
We actually thought we were saving the world.
We’ve now had fifty plus years of earnest activism by Baby Boomers, and yes, we’ve made progress, and we’ve had victories along the way, but how do things stand now?
The prognosis for our future is worse than ever.
So it’s just plain wrong to lay the burden of saving the species on young people. They’re up against much greater odds than we Boomers ever were and we failed.
These days, more and more scary books are being published, each one driving home the argument that we’re in terrible trouble.
And they’re big books—three hundred pages of damning facts jammed in there with no filler…
Just punch, punch, punch.
Then at the end, in the closing chapter, each book seems to have a quick upbeat flourish as if it were…
A long train of horrors with a little red caboose of hope.
I wonder if the publishers tell the authors they’d better end on a positive note or else their books won’t sell. In any event, the final rah-rah chapter never holds nearly the conviction the alarming chapters do.
Young people are…
Declaring a global state of emergency.
They are…
Demanding radical mass action.
They’re gutsy. They’re telling the truth about how bad things are.
But when they look around the world, what do they see?
Major countries making a hard right turn into deadly authoritarianism.
Hateful buffoons and sociopathic grifters becoming the leaders of those nations.
And big corporate forces that will do whatever it takes to stop change and defend the status quo.
Young people find themselves up against political and economic elites who are doing exactly the wrong things, and who, as Chris Hedges says, are…
Acting as if they hated humankind and wanted it dead.
Over the next dozen years, I believe young people will see their call to action ignored. Or answered with the razzle-dazzle of bright and shiny counterfeit solutions and the tap dance of excuses. And in response…
More and more of them will give up on hope.
And this calls the question for us veteran activists, both Boomers like me and those who are in their middle years…
What do we want to do about this?
When we look into that deepest place in our hearts, how do we want to be there for young people? What do we want to be able to offer them?
How starting company and comforting?
How about proceeding with humility? Because no one really knows how to get us out of the trouble we’re in.
How about taking all our years of experience and creating the beginning of a system of post-hope activism. Something that young people could pick up and run with and make their own. Something so they wouldn’t have to start from scratch.
How about if we decide that we will not lie to them? We will not promise them easy steps. We will not preach pretty platitudes. We’ll tell the truth in the most nurturing way we can.
How about if we choose to do the inner work, the personal moral labor it will take to be able to meet these young people where they are in their lives?