memes

So much of the '90s/'00s was this promise of gradual economic reform and transition to a newer, greener, more bountiful post-scarcity future. And... it just never arrived.

We refused to quit our addiction to fossil fuels, and even financed these enormous propaganda smears aimed at anyone who would so much as suggest that wind or solar or hydro or geothermal or nuclear were viable alternatives to burning rocks and dinosaur jizz. We refused to urbanize in a material way, instead clinging to wider highways connecting increasingly remote suburbs with unapproachable housing costs. We refused to digitize, clinging to office commutes, and junk mail overflowing mailboxes and tons, and tons of plastic disposable trash piling up in landfills long after any of this added economic value.

All the promises of the 70s/80s Sci-Fi and subsequent Tech Guy Messiahs failed to emerge. Meanwhile, the real modernization has been bigger and bigger scams. Hyperloops that never get built. Cryptocurrencies that go bankrupt at an escalating clip. Digital Phantasms intended to fill the holes in our lives created by poverty and alienation. Landlords and airlines and schools and employers cartelizing to more efficiently raise our rents and lower our wages. Existence as an increasingly overpriced a la carte service that never seems able to deliver.

We are the generation that got grifted. Decade after decade of false promises and rug pulls and vaporware. Who could live through all that and not feel a bit of doom in their bones?