In hard times, it's overwhelming to live only in the present.
Incorrect as a general rule. I find the present plenty overwhelming, but it’s precisely because of the overall societal trajectory into the future.
There is some minor to moderate difficulty right now in dealing with high inflation, but that’s not the overwhelming part. What’s overwhelming is the obvious worldwide collective descent into madness and the terrible future in store for billions of people as we blow past old climate goals.
Even if we all somehow manage to rein in the fascism that’s not serving the interests of the majority and is spreading across the world, we’re hurtling towards:
- worsening natural disasters
- collapse of insurance markets
- collapse of mortgage markets
- collapse of food supplies
- dwindling fresh water supplies, both rivers and aquifers
- worldwide refugee crisis from unlivable equatorial regions
- martial law to suppress food riots and refugees
- likely development of autonomous robot soldiers that removes any possible balance for front line morality
- likely accelerating and compounding climate impacts through tipping points
- collapse of the AMOC
- melting permafrost methane release
- sea level rise inundation
That all seems fairly well baked in at this point, but none of it has really come to pass yet. The future bad effects are not yet actually part of the present, but the feelings of overwhelmedness that they induce are very real for anyone paying attention.
Mindfulness in the present is a good escape from the future.