I read from a few writers on Substack focused on collapse, and came across a post that relates a message from someone from Gen Z, filled with existential angst and fear about our future, some of which I share since I am also from Gen Z, and some of which I don't. Here is the full message, because I have no idea how long the post in question will be there for, because the internet is so unreliable for long-term archival purposes.
I’m terrified. Every single choice I make right now is absolutely pointless. We were raised on the gospel of meritocracy, told to "pull up your bootstraps" and that hard work guarantees success. But my boots are shredded and the only thing waiting at the top of the hill is the cliff edge.
I look at my life and see a colossal joke played on us by history. We were born into the fallout.
Previous generations bought houses, raised families, and had pensions simply by showing up. They got to play the economic game with cheat codes, and now, they’ve handed us the debt. Today's economic reality is about staving off poverty. Every dollar I owe for my education I'm not even sure I need, or can benefit from, feels like a chain around my ankle.
I am paying for a future that no longer exists. A debt burden imposed on us by a system that has already collapsed. A system that was bailed out while we, the innocent inheritors, were left holding the bag.
Why should I spend my precious, finite energy trying to save for a home when the housing market is grotesquely unaffordable? We are tenants in a world owned by others. Every rent check is a surrender. And the older generations preach about saving? They had affordable houses and free college while I have crushing debt and a rental market that laughs in our faces.
This is why I question every decision. Should I be building a career or finding a way to live now, because there might not be a later? How many extra hours should I work when that effort simply maintains a miserable status quo?
My economic despair is worsened by dread about the planet. We are living under a doomsday clock. I know the planet is collapsing. I’ve seen the reports, the charts, and the heat waves. My generation is the first to grow up with the certainty that our world is ending.
The institutions that are meant to serve us are committing a slow-motion atrocity, prioritizing short-term profits over the survival of humanity. And all of us watch, paralyzed. Even those with the power to do something about it.
How can I plan for a thirty-year mortgage when scientists are warning of mass climate migrations and resource wars starting next decade?
When they tell me to plan for retirement, I genuinely wonder if I'll even live to see 50, or if that decade will be defined by famine, water scarcity, or social breakdown. Long-term planning seem utterly ludicrous.
Marriage? Dont make me laugh! How can I commit to building a future with someone when I can't even afford an apartment, never mind a house or condo? Does love even have a place in collapse, or are we just looking for someone to share the burden? I've had crushes and friends, but have never thought of anything beyond that.
Previous generations would get married at age 20 and immediately start a life! That seems crazy to me. My generation, except for those with rich parents, have to scrape together a down payment so we can pay a debt until we die in the water wars.
My parents call me a cynic but how can you commit to another human being when your existence is perpetually precarious?
I suppose there is no right time, but whether it's a marriage, home or career all I see is delay. It just feels like the promise of moving out and starting our own lives together is just another lie. Love and family are luxury goods that only the rich can afford.
All this creates a generation with a hunger for radical solutions. We have nothing to lose.
Do you still wonder why charismatic outsiders promising to burn the whole system down start sounding like the only sane option? Compromise and patience are weak and ineffective against the scale of the problems we face.
We’re being sold radical promises by politicians who target our rage. Some veer to the left others to the right. This radicalization is a direct consequence of institutional collapse and abandonment.
I know these promises are empty. I suppose most people do. But we are so desperate for a lifeline that we'll grab onto anything that comes our way.
While most essays end with "and here are the 3 things we can do to fix this" I don't have anything to share. Is there even a solution? It seems like all I can do is vent and try to live another day. Thank you for listening.
I agree with the points related to economics, and the fact that there is no worldly hope, but I strongly disagree on the love part. If the economy, and society at large, is doing so badly, then surely what we should do is focus on the things which don't involve money at all, but are things which are directly available—because there is no long term—and intrinsically valuable—not dependent on money, middle men, or complex bureaucratic processes. Which is exactly what love is. Love for others. Love for nature. Love for the simple delight in silence. Love for great music. Love for beautiful art. Love for silliness. Love for the truth. Love for honesty. Love for what we still have right now. Love for witnessing the death of the insane technological system and its grip on the human soul. Even if that collapse also means the death of billions of people.
The way I see it, people worry because they still cling onto some hope, some way for the system to recover and for the "normal" to be maintained. There was never a normal, there is no solution to societal collapse, and there is no worldly hope. I am not against the word 'hope' per se, but we should distinguish between the finite world of human beings, and the Absolute, the Universe, the Divine, or simply Reality, whatever you want to call it, which is always going to be fine because evidently It cannot be threatened by mere mortals, and in which we can find the solace of real hope, the kind that helps us face our inevitable death, and the equally inevitable collapse of society.
If you are a young person, then it means that you don't own many things in the first place. There is little that tethers you to this society, so why resist the Truth? The world is dying, and you know it. The only thing that matters in a collapsing world is the present moment, and our conscious experience of it. And always, always facing the pain, no matter how hard it gets. Too many people are going to double down on their usual distractions as collapse ensues, culminating in nihilistic hedonism as the end times approach, which is why the conscious amongst us need to "fiddle while Rome is burning, and [...] face towards the flames". 1
1 A quote by Orwell about Henry Miller, which you can find in his essay titled 'Inside the Whale', and which I got from Darren Allen in his recent journal entry
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2026-05-28