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For so many reasons, we may be reaching the last generation.
You’ve thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain’t worth the blood
That runs in your veins
— Bob Dylan, Masters of War
One of my favorite songs is Bob Dylan’s Masters of War. Even though it was written to protest the Vietnam War, the song is (sadly) timeless. We always seem to have clueless “leaders” who do nothing but cause havoc and chaos and death. They produce nothing, but put guns in our hands and send us to kill — and be killed — while they pose with fake dignity safely behind desks.
One of his lyrics, which I never paid much attention to until now, is his reference to “fear to bring children into the world.” This is coming true. Current and incoming generations are having fewer children and many young people want no children. They are aware of the trouble the planet is in, they are aware of the ongoing failure of leaders, and see it as cruel to bring children into a doomed world.
Only when and if we sharply reverse course, end fossil fuels and end the ridiculous cruelty, greed…