Leaving the world a better place than we found it
"Kids have it easy these days"... A.K.A one of the most frustrating sentences in the English language.
Despite this, it is something that every person will have been told by someone older than themselves at some point in their life, but I'm not quite sure why.
As humans, I think it's fair to say that ultimately we all want to try and leave the leave the world a better place than we found it.
This is obviously quite a daunting task; the world is quite a big place really, and it's hard to even know where to start...
For example, when I want to leave my bedroom a better place than I found it when I woke up this morning - i.e, so I don't end up stepping on a spiky-side-up plug, and then tripping over my laundry pile as I'm trying to make it out of the door - I can just have a quick tidy, and I can instantly see the results a.k.a no pain in my foot and I can actually find my clothes...
However the world is a little bit bigger and a little bit more complex than my bedroom, so I'm really sorry about this awful analogy - I think I just wanted some sympathy for my foot.
Anyway, now that that's out of my system... the world really is a big place, and we all go through life hoping to end up doing something that will change it for the better.
We all have a specific role we play on this planet which in some way, shape or form which helps to improve life on Earth.
I am already living in a better world than the one I was born into 21 years ago. For example, the Good Friday Agreement was established (1998), Facebook was created (2004), and perhaps most remarkably, we now have memes and emojis (2016).
I am extremely grateful to all those before me who have contributed to shaping the world into being a better place for me to live in.
From this, I am determined to continue working to make the world a better place for generations to come after me too.
This is why I really cannot stand when people from older generations like to highlight to their children and grand-children how they 'have it so much easier'...
Of course younger generations will have it easier! I would really hope they would!
It's such a backwards mindset to be jealous of how 'easy' the current generation has it. Not only is it selfish, but also it shows an ignorance to the challenges future generations will have to deal with. Every single generation will face great challenges. (If you want a good book about this, read Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari - it is so interesting.)
If an older generation is moaning about having to face different challenges to a younger generation, that's mad. It's about as useful as comparing the past, where you had to memorise all telephone numbers you needed to physically dial into a phone, versus now, where we have all the numbers we could ever need saved in a mobile phone. It's completely illogical to say that this is unfair just because it's easier.
Comparison can be useful in seeing how far we've come, but that's about it. Comparison for anything more is a very dangerous thing. Also, it almost goes without saying that is actually impossible to make accurate comparisons from one generation to another - how can you compare the value of the world in 1717 compared to 2017?
We all have a responsibility to future generations to stay optimistic about the future. But even more than this, we owe it to them to want this for them.
We need to want the world to be a better place, and eliminate the 'younger people have it better' mindset.
After all, unless we crack the whole immortality thing in the next 30 years or so, we won't even be here to witness the enormous changes our time on earth will cause for future generations. So the most we can do whilst we're still here is aim to make those changes as positive as possible.
We can't afford to be jealous or nonchalant; we should be intrigued and inspired for the kind of world that will exist after this one.
So if you're wondering about how on earth you could begin to leave the world a little better than when you found it, the best place to start is your own mind. After that, the world is your oyster in terms of anything else you'd like to change.
By starting off with our mindset, we are already opening ourselves up to the potential that future generations could fulfil.
This is the least we owe them, and this is the least we owe those who worked before us to leave their world a better place than they found it.
So yes, younger people have it better, and hopefully they always will.
