Legacy for the future?

[B. de Corbin]

In all honesty, I have to say that I really don't care what people think, feel, or believe forty - fifty - a hundred years in the future. At my age, I know that I will be spending very little time in the future, and I have zero interest in controlling it from the grave.

I feel that the future belongs to those who will live there, and they will have to decide for themselves what kind of world they want to live in. My entire psychology - my mind set - is based on experiences and events from forty or fifty years ago, and the world is a whole 'nother ball o' wax now.

But if, unlike me, you feel there is something you can leave for future generations, what is it?

What is the most important or meaningful legacy that can be left for future generations?

[DanieMarie]

This stuff is definitely important to me. What we do today might not affect us, but it affects our kids and grandkids in a big way and we have a responsibility to leave them with something manageable. Although I can't do what I think is important all alone, each one of us is part of society and collectively we have responsibilities. One of us can't make a difference, but if we all feel that our actions don't matter, that can be dangerous. Therefore, I try to live a life and support political policies in a way that I think will have a positive effect on current and future generations. Some things that I think are important in my countries (yes, plural):

-redressing some of the changes that made inequality possible. I think we need to reassess our declining support for unions (this is already going well in Germany but I'd like to see it happen in Canada), tighten up workers rights laws, make sure that real-time wages keep up with costs, and making sure that there are good and VARIED (because we're not all good at the same thing) opportunities (paid ones) out there for young people.

-Overhauling retirement and pensions systems. This is already happening, but it's fairly late and it's not really enough. I have a lot of relatives who are complaining about the fact that they can't claim their federal pensions for a couple more years and I know that it's hard for a lot of people, but think of how much harder it will be for us, the kids. You might not be able to retire when you wanted to, but many of us may not be able to retire -at all- and if the corrections don't start happening now, that will definitely happen.

-Stop living like we have 3 planets to spare. Make sure that sustainability is a huge priority.

-Stop treating the things we buy as if they weren't made and distributed by real people. Buy from employers who treat their employees well (this is a huge priority for me...I've largely stopped shopping on Amazon because of it). Dollars matter and dollars speak and if we buy from companies that reflect our values, we are investing in those values.

-Spend more in local businesses, because spending in local businesses is investing in the local economy.

I think sometimes making the world a livable place for future generations means making some sacrifices now, but I think it is absolutely important that we do it. I don't want to be part of the generation that wrecked the world, even if I'm not alive to see it.

[thalassa]

I think that we have two real responsibilities--information/knowledge/experience preservation (via education) and environmental preservation (minimizing pollution, development of undeveloped lands, human degradation of habitat, etc).

I don't give two shits about the economy for one reason--its a false model...its only as real as the power we give it. The stock market, for example is a giant legal casino. Our economy isn't sustainable, on either a local, national, or global level, and eventually, I think we will figure that out.

[MoonRaven]

This stuff is definitely important to me. What we do today might not affect us, but it affects our kids and grandkids in a big way and we have a responsibility to leave them with something manageable. Although I can't do what I think is important all alone, each one of us is part of society and collectively we have responsibilities. One of us can't make a difference, but if we all feel that our actions don't matter, that can be dangerous.

Emphasis mine.

Here is the real problem in this if you ask me. Becuase with today's political reality, particularly here in the EU, most of the citizen are starting to feel this way. I doesn't matter what we think, heck it doesn't even matter what our respective countries' politicians think or what legislation they want to make, it gets slapped down by the EU courts and bureaucrats. So a lot is starting to feel like "why even bother, no matter what we do it won't make any difference anyway". I've lost count on the number of environmetal protection laws the Danish government have passed that the EU courts have overruled.

[Rowanwood]

I think the best thing we can do for the future is teach the next generation to use critical thinking to make decisions. We can't predict the future, so making "policies" is foolish to me. The policies we make are for now.

But we can be assured there will always be choices to make. If we can help them determine how to make the right ones, THEN we will change the future.

Don't have to have kids of your own or be a teacher to participate in this. Being a good living role model is just as important.

[DanieMarie]

I think that we have two real responsibilities--information/knowledge/experience preservation (via education) and environmental preservation (minimizing pollution, development of undeveloped lands, human degradation of habitat, etc).

I don't give two shits about the economy for one reason--its a false model...its only as real as the power we give it. The stock market, for example is a giant legal casino. Our economy isn't sustainable, on either a local, national, or global level, and eventually, I think we will figure that out.

Oh gods, I sure hope so!

I agree.

[B. de Corbin]

For clarity, so ya'll don't imagine I'm tearing up Mother Earth, let me explain what I mean by my "I don't care about the future" attitude

Examples-
1.
I have kids, and by any standard I can apply, I raised them very well. They are thoughtful, caring, hard working, and kind. It's taken a huge chunk of my life - and now I've cut them loose.

I don't tell them what to think, how they should live, who to vote for, and I won't tell them how to raise their children (or even if they should or should not have them). These are all decisions that they will have to make, based on the times and circumstances under which they will be living (i.e. "The future").

2.
I own a chunk of forest. As long as I live, that chunk of forest will remain a chunk of forest. When I die, it will pass on to my kids. I like to imagine that they will hold on to that land, and keep it a chunk of forest, and enjoy it as a chunk of forest. There is probably some way I could write conditions into my will, forcing them to keep that land undeveloped. But I won't.

At some point in the future, the best choice might be to plow it all over and build a mall. Sad, but I don't know what the future will hold, and I won't attempt to force my will on those who will follow me.

3.
Considering how common breast enlargement, tummy tucks, nose jobs, liposuction, etc. (modifying what nature gave ya) is and adding to that the great strides being made in genetic research, genetic testing, and prenatal medicine, I predict (with a certainty hovering close to 100%) that "designer babies" will become common in the near future (it has been controversial, but in England gender based abortion is currently considered legal, as a current example, and "abortion-on-demand" makes it impossible to stop even if illegal).

That creeps me out - a lot. But I'm not going to be living with that bunch of Ken/Barbie people of the future. So I'm not going to bother thinking about it any more.

[Ophidia]

I used to think about my legacy for future generations. It's kind of a weird thought to have, not having any of my own future generations... What would I leave to other people's kids? And as my life has gone on and shown itself to be pretty uneventful, the more I feel like I don't make a difference anyway.

So I mostly concentrate on doing things in the opposite direction - leaving behind as little destruction and impact as possible. It's like the hiker's creed of 'take only pictures, leave only footprints' - only I'd be happy if I didn't leave any footprints, either.

[monsno_leedra]

From a genealogy perspective most people leave little enough of a footprint as it is. The future appears often to be lost as the struggle of the past to get there is forgotten or played down. So much is lost because people do not want to influence the future but in many ways are responsible for all the ills that shall befall our future because of not passing things down. Social, cultural, ethnic, morale, etc all have repercussions that ripple across the sands of time, only to be repeated because they are forgotten.

Take Hurricane Sandy and New England, it will be forgotten within a generation probably and then doomed to happen again. Doomed because people will build in areas that are wrong, build structure's that can not withstand the force of nature. Codes will be re-written, etc that will guarente that it has to happen.

Education is important but many times education is pointed to a new future and development at the expense of the past. The lessons and errors of the past forgotten or played down as time marches forward and the living memory is reduced to nothing. Once that happens then fact becomes corrupted fable, consider how many try to change the Holocaust today and argue it never happened. The solders who found them are dying out, the people who ran them also dying out, the historical sites simply marks on a map many times now. Then people ask how could something like that happen when it occurs in places like Bosnia and such years later or continues in parts of Africa even today.

[Historyforall]

The future is not just for our kids but what if reincarnation is a fact. Whether you believe in it or not if it is in fact the way the universe works why make it harder for your future self.

The one thing that is true is that anything can happen to change our direction, good or bad. It takes action and those in control know it and their goal is distraction. As long as you care more about anything else than stopping unneccesary expansion, wages, wars, etc... They will continue to exploit and control.

For the future I can see the spread of druidism/wicca or similar nature based religion/spirituality rising to counter the willful destruction of our environment.