It seems like every generation, the world is ending. This is neither the fault of the old guard, failing to fully eradicate all of the problems that had been their responsibility, nor is it the fault of the rising generation, abandoning time honored and tested traditions and degenerating into indolence and lawlessness. The truth is that every generation collectively and heroically strives to solve the problems facing them and they often succeed. Their successes, however, don’t usher in some paradisiacal utopia because humanity has many more problems than we even know about, much less know what to do with and each time some major issue gets fixed, we find that are hitherto unencountered problems waiting at the wings, ready and eager to inflict some fresh hell upon us. For most of human history, our ancestors had no idea about any of the health problems associated with obesity because almost none of them ever had enough food to stay more than one or two days from starving to death, much less eat enough to get fat. Their apocalypse was not having enough food, our apocalypse now is having too much food. Before the germ theory of disease was developed, plagues and pestilences would wipe out thirty to ninety percent of a population. Most of us no longer have to worry about catching a case of scarlet fever or cholera or tuberculosis so bad that it kills us, but now we’re living long enough to face cancers and neurodegenerative diseases and autoimmune disorders. Most of us have lived our whole lives without ever having to duck and cover from an air raid or face down tanks rolling through our neighborhoods, but we do experience the effects of and participate in trade wars and culture wars. We may have found ways to extend life expectancy but so far we haven’t conquered death. Part of the reason that each new generation faces their own apocalypse is undoubtedly because each generation that preceded them did not live up to their full potential and failed to become and to do everything they possibly could. But undoubtedly part of the reason that we must all face a new apocalypse now that is often quite different from all of the ones before is because we each have the opportunity and the obligation to improve ourselves and the world around us and to avert our own apocalypse. To stuff our hands in our pockets and sulk on the sidelines because our parents left us a bloody mess will not make it any more likely that we will survive the apocalypse that is coming at us. To assert that we are too weak or stupid to figure out all of this on our own and leave it to the next generation to figure out means that not only are we dooming future generations to inherit a world that is worse off than it might have been, but we are dooming ourselves to a life blighted by an unchallenged and unconquered apocalypse that we did nothing to address. I hope that we will all seek to develop a sense of gratitude for all of the sacrifices our ancestors made to overcome and cancel the apocalypses they faced, that we will be self-interested enough to face and conquer the apocalypses that are facing us, and that we will live our lives in such a way that we will give to the next generation examples of strength and courage and integrity so that they may face their own apocalypses filled with faith and hope. The apocalypses now are our responsibility and they are the ones that we are uniquely suited to contend with and we will find no better purpose for our lives and no deeper sense of joy and satisfaction than by wasting and wearing out our lives in the service of overcoming the evils of our day.
