Enjoy Your Childhood Kiddo- We’re All Going Down
What does a prevailing and growing culture of alarmism do to our kids?
A few years back, I had friends who were the parents of two lovely children. The father was obsessed with two things- sugar and climate change. In retrospect he probably wasn’t too far off the mark on the calamity-of-sugar front, although the fervour he brought to his argument left a lot to be desired for his cringing wife.
But the hysteria he brought to his concerns on climate change was seriously next level. I’m fairly confident the lovely dad and daughter outings they had cycling around took on an ominous, sleep-depriving underpinning for his 6 year old as he constantly pointed to all the places that would be under when the water level raised. “There’s the icecream shop Daddy! Can we get an icecream please Daddy?” “No way! And anyway, that evil poison-peddling place will be below sea-level before you know it…”
Now kids are titleholders when it comes to living in originary time so when you start telling them “soon” they think you mean the same version of “soon” as when dessert is arriving. If they’ve played their cards right — after dinner. Imagine what they understand as ‘soon’ when it comes to climate change- forget any toxic-laden deliciousness- better go pack my floaties!
Don’t get me wrong here- I’m no hardened climate skeptic but I reckon, despite my former devout green-blinkered convictions, I am probably becoming a little more agnostic. I’ve travelled and have dismayed at changes to many of the places I’ve been to with horrendous pollution rendering them now unrecognisable. And I live in Australia for goodness sake! Between bushfires and floods and everything in between, current talk of climate is even more prevalent than the weather. And whatever anyone says- there is actually a distinction there.
Weather events have always been moderate to huge in Australia. It’s called “fire season” for a reason- it’s seasonal. And we’ve had a friggin doozy this one, from what I can make out, exacerbated by long term drought, poor land management and other factors that are a combination of human failings and bigger picture climate shifts.
Whether it’s anthrogenic or normal earth cycles who knows? Personally I think it’s a mixture of the two. We can debate about the causes until the cows come home (or maybe they won’t because they’ll have burnt or drowned) but better to do this from tempered rationalisation instead of a crazy-making hotbed of panic.
And now we’re dealing with COVID-19! This crisis, more than any shows that we are globally finding ourselves in a culture of overwhelmingly increasing alarmism, and for me, that is the biggest cause for alarm. Kids and young people are getting full-blown anxiety conditions. I’ve seen the dissemination of helpful information on how to help your kids cope with the climate crisis.
What would actually be most helpful is if everyone could just calm the fuck down!
Every generation has had something to deal with- for my parents it was nuclear disarmament, for their parents it was WW2 and then the Cold War. Their media was radio, newspapers and then TV. Ours is a screen almost everywhere we turn and it amplifies everything to absurd proportions.
I abjectly object to ridiculous alarmism and this “if it scares it airs” bullshit. Most of these issues are overwhelmingly complex and it seems a rare person who will take the time to do a full proper analysis (myself included). Alarmist bullshit is clickbait and time and time again it seems that in an age of relentless byte-sized info it becomes the prevailing “truth” even when it’s not backed up by a shred of evidence let alone, reliable evidence. Like child abduction — the stats of which have remained pretty consistent for a long time yet it’s become the single biggest motivator for all kinds of panic-based measures that result in kids not being able to do normal healthy kid things like even going outside to play or heaven forbid- a ride on their bike.
I facepalm at the Greta Thunbergs of the world. Don’t get me wrong- her vitriolic rants have been a figurehead catalyst for a lot of political momentum. At least PR people have been scrambling to make politicians give responsive lip service to a movement gaining more and more traction. But I don’t think her intensely emotional and angry speeches declaring the total end of the world in less than a decade has done much for the general mental wellbeing of this generation.
Living in a perpetual state of fear is never good for the psyche. It makes people trigger happy if not with actual guns but very much so with their mouths and fingers on keyboards. Frankly, it’s just exhausting and debilitating.
Where’s the motivation to be found in doom? So much apocalyptic disaster and death being peddled everywhere you turn and on every device you tune into. It’s easier just to switch off. Instead of being a rallying force the danger is this overly emotional imminent-Armageddon approach will have the outcome of total apathy. “50/50 chance? Fuck it. Might as well just indulge in 100% nihilistic hedonism.”
This generation is going to have to develop incredible emotional resilience and intelligence to surf the chaos moving forward. There is simply so MUCH “information” available that they will have to learn how to not freak out over every little thing or at least be selective in their freakouts. Their sanity will quite literally depend on it!
They will need a massive capacity to calmly sift through the chicken-littleism, learn where to source proper information and make their own assessments on the risks as they arise. And let’s face it- they will need to seriously work on mitigation strategies.
I prefer to focus my discussions with my kids around all this stuff on the things they CAN do rather than underpinning their childhood with notions of irreparable doom. I won’t encourage them to go to protests or strikes or just jump up and down hollering at the falling sky and pointing fingers at the people perceived responsible. I’d prefer they jump up and do something. These kids of mine who are being greenwashed at school yet whose environmentalism seems to extend only as far as that next piece of pointless plastic shit they REALLY want. The one they will play with for 5 minutes and discard to the same fate as every other piece of pointless plastic shit, no doubt cursing Marie Condo as it greets the wheelie bin to end its short life in the Great Eternal Land of the Fill.
I’m working on encouraging my kids to embed solid philosophy and action in their everyday lives. To make choices to reduce their own environmental impact, live well, underpinned by a strong ethic of personal responsibility. (check out our clean up project)
For now, they should just master the art of washing their hands properly and probably help me work out where to buy toilet paper…
But as they get older they will also need to be aware that there are bigger things at play. Massive industry. Economics. Political will. Things well beyond their control.
They will need to learn how to work collaboratively on bigger picture solutions. But they and their generation will only feel motivated to study and gain the skills and knowledge to do this if they’re underpinned by a feeling of optimism. Because otherwise, what’s the point?
Technology and economy will prevail. Throughout human history, it always has. In between the screaming Left and the disdaining Right- solutions will be found. Yes, we should have invested earlier when the scientific writing was on the wall. Why aren’t we all driving electric cars already? We will invest in more research and development because soon, we will have no choice.
Instead of dwelling on the causes of all these problems I will work hard to encourage my kids to focus on mitigation and adaption, and especially be tempered with a good dose of calm, sane dialogue with an absolute determination for cooperation to enable solutions.
But I really want my kids to enjoy just being kids for a bit before they “inherit the earth” and the weight of it all, and I think my biggest mission here is to instill in them positive possibility for the future instead of just perpetual panic-stricken doom and gloom.
There are little bytes of hope in between it all, like rain falling on long parched earth and little boys who’ve never seen water falling from the sky, delighting in the monsoon. There always needs to be hope…
Right, I’m off to buy some toilet paper…
In mayhem, marvel and mirth — MamaMindFULL ❤
