“…the only thing we have to fear is… fear itself…”
President Roosevelt had his work cut out for him, being elected in 1933 following The Great Depression. This poignant reference to Theraux was the introduction to outlining his plan to fighting the economic war that America had to wage with itself to get over 25% unemployment. This along with the crippling lack of national motivation and existential dread that no doubt ailed the American people as they struggled to live in a society designed for failure.
People call Millennials the ‘snowflake generation’, saying that they are quick to emotion and unwilling to take the hits in order to get a better life. One could argue that, as our generation grew up, we ended up burning ourselves out to the point of mental and physical exhaustion just to live up to going beyond the image that was imparted onto us.
We are all either paying rent or mortgages, keeping up with expenses that seem to never end, trying our best to give our animal or human children a life we believe they deserve, as well as trying to follow a number of superfood diet trends because the internet. Is our fear justified? Partly, sure.
The issue I have with fear is just what the former 32nd President of the US was alluding to. Many times, caught up in our expenses and anxiety, reality starts to falter. I’m not talking about how we tend to be idealistic in thinking that one day we will run into a sum of money that will finally make us “happy” or “independent”. This breach in existential fabric is related to the fact that we are so used to being terrified of how to survive until the end of the month most months, that even when we actually have more than enough, it never feels like we can stop checking our balance every 20 minutes.
What ends up happening to us is that we start to doubt that success is even possible when realistically we have the drive, and more often than not, we’re overqualified because we’ve been grinding for so long trying to prove we can to nobody but ourselves. Why can’t we just give ourselves a break sometimes?
This is what makes it nameless, nobody is chasing us. This is what makes it unreasoning, we are afraid for the sake of being afraid. This is what makes it unjustified, we are more than enough to live a full and happy life if only we allow ourselves to realise what we have rather than what we think we need. And further to this living nightmare, why are we consistently trying to survive alone? Reach out. Make friends. We’re in the same boat.
We are now the young workforce taking the world by storm, challenging ideals of capitalism and faceless corporations. We challenge the rich. We have opinions and views that now must be heard. We want things to change so that we no longer need to feel like we’re not living up to whatever. Let’s change our retreat into ourselves to advance into the real world. If we are still doubted by other generations, so what? Weren’t they also doubted by the previous ones for being heathens in the 60s?
What we need to do now is get into politics, to legislate and lay the groundwork for grassroots to be able to get a good footing. Let’s cut the legs out from underneath corrupt institutions once and for all and try to live sustainably without destroying a world we have absolutely no right over whatsoever. We can actually, finally, live up to the idea of leaving a better world for those coming after us because we are not governed by post war money grabbing to fuel our baseless vendetta against our own peace of mind.
I pledge to let go of my nameless generational fear, and I invite you to do the same. Let’s advance together once and for all.
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