Life is a struggle. I think my age group has established that. I think Boomers understand that better than we do too.
If you look through history then as a populace we are getting older and older. I say that because when I was going through school it was noted that the UK had become an older country.
Why?
Modern Healthcare
Because after the second world war we established free healthcare for all. That one thing rocketed the health of older (and newer) generations to new and untold heights. There’s a reason they are called the boomer generation and that’s because people were having children at the same rate, however they weren’t dying off like they used to.
I’m sure there are a lot of Gen X’ers like me that can tell you stories of their Grans and Grandads having 10 siblings and at least three or four of them died off. But because of the sudden rise in healthcare, and not to mention the significant advances in healthcare (like penicillin) which gave rise to a generation that just didn’t die off like they used to.
This has resulted in a lot of older people being around today than ever before. The pension age was at 60 because most people didn’t make it that far. But now they do, and it’s causing a massive strain on the welfare state. Where it was once secure, it’s now overcrowded by older people.
I’m not grouching about this though, in fact, it’s our duty as younger people to take care of the older people around us. After all, they took care of us and loved us when we were young. Such is the circle of life.
Life has become easier
Through these new age medical advancements and social healthcare for all, surviving the wilderness has become a lot easier for most people. The survival struggle has become a lot easier than it once was. Bugs that used to kill us off in the thousands are all but eliminated.
But the struggle is still there. Life is like balancing your wellbeing on a knife edge. With every significant new advancement brings along with it a certain amount of adversity. The industrial revolution made lots of people unemployed in a time when it was either work or die. Life becomes easier for society as a whole at the expense of others.
Advancements in technology
The same we can see happening with technology. We have never before been so connected as a species ever. I can if I wanted to date a Japanese lady living in Japan if I so wished to. Our dating spheres have widened beyond recognition. When all the men were competing for the local pretty girls attention, that is a time that’s almost all but lost now. You can fire up your internet and hit up some girl in the next city.
But that has displaced a lot of relationships in the local sense. Where normally a man would date a woman on near enough his level in town, his options would have been limited. Now he has a whole world open to him and available to find and court. This has left a lot of men (and women) behind, where normally they would find relationships.
And it’s not only that but we’re the loneliest we’ve ever been, ever. When I was a young boy I was never home. On days off school my mother would open the door and tell me to be back in for dinner, and I’d be off playing in the woods with my friends — today that has been swapped out for a quiet night in with COD multiplayer with friends. Great in essence but still very lonely and isolating.
I would argue that we face different struggles today but life is no less tough than it used to be. Sure, we have better healthcare and access to information, but there’s literally thousands of people applying for low end jobs. Unemployment is a thing that wasn’t well known pre-1950s. I have heard stories of my Grandad finishing a job on Friday and finding another one by Monday.
And by god the services. Want to watch movies? Talk to people over the phone? Use the internet? Yeah, individually those will all cost and you won’t be a cool person if you don’t have everything. In fact if you don’t at least have the internet and a phone then you will be cut off from the rest of society. When we were young we didn’t need all that because we were outside all the time getting the nutrients we needed from the sun and the friendship hormones from our friends being with them.
The rise of the individual
There seems to be this misconception that life is easy today and that you can do anything you want to given the right circumstances. But that’s a lie. A big fat lie. It’s just as hard today to get by than it was 60 years ago. In fact 60 years ago we didn’t have half the shit we have to worry about that we have today because the rising mental cost of individualism.
Individualism is great to an extent but it comes at the cost of community. People no longer talk to the neighbours like we used to. Back when I was a kid if you were being a “little shit” then the local dads would sort you out. If you were in a single parent family then someone would surely take you fishing with their kid or something, but then that has been replaced with solitary and lack of community.
We forget that humans are a communal species; this solitary, in our homes, not doing much is relatively new to us and so far it isn’t playing well on our mental health.
And through knowing all of this (which is a mere fraction of what’s really going on) we have to adapt to our environment to live optimally, which is a struggle. A real struggle. How do you optimise your life when there’s no sun to play with your friends in; all of them are online in their houses. How can you match with a local date when all of them are hooked up with Chads in the next city. And how can you save up because to merely exist and communicate in the world that takes all of your wages to pay for all the services you have.
It’s a bit of a catch 22 situation but if you can answer all of this then you’re in luck. You’ll be ahead of a lot of people in the world, that’s for sure.
Peace.
