For The Future Generations

One of the people behind the new multimillion dollar Large Hadron Collider said that he felt he was contributing something special and significant to humanity. On an internet forum, I mentioned that he should try saying that to someone on a run down housing estate who doesn’t know where their kids’ next meal is coming from. I was soundly corrected and put in my place by someone who pointed out that the Large Hadron Collider is going to improve things for future generations.

Future generations.

This is the unquestioned excuse for everything. If you can say that you’re doing something for future generations, you can get away with anything.

We preserve old buildings for future generations to be able to visit all the old barns of the world. We want to save fossil fuel for future generations to keep warm. We want to keep rare and endangered species for future generations to look at them and say Look at that!

We’re making people suffer today on behalf of the people who might be born, one day, we don’t because they don’t exist yet.

How do you like the idea that you might die of cancer which could be treated but because the government needs to put millions of pounds into watching replays of the Big Bang or go looking for worms in Mars, you’re going to have to die. Hey, if those future generations have to choose between you and a close look at the rings around Uranus, guess who’s not going to hospital?
Of course, it’s a price worth paying if you’re rich because you won’t need to change your lifestyle and anything you buy, you can probably get on some sort of sponsorship anyway, but if you’re poor, living hand-to-mouth and you don’t know if you can even afford to go to work next week, you got to look at it like this; it’s a price worth paying and you’ve got to look at the big picture.

Who are these future generations anyway? How do we know the future generations won't be generations of idiots? The past isn't exactly a good form! The better things are, the more people take, exploit and abuse so what's going to happen to suddenly transform humans into the responsible, caring and honest species we seem to romantically imagine the future generations to be?

No. What's happening is that today's poor are paying the price for tomorrow's rich.

There will always be economic classes because the economy requires that there are people who are poor and who don't have stuff so that those who do have stuff can have stuff that's valuable.

In fact, the only person who stands to gain from all the for future generations lark is the last human that will ever live. If that person has a crap life, then it's all a waste of time.

If you become the last human alive, rest assured, it's all for you. We're all thinking of you. You're the one we're keeping all this for, so get your ass down the museums, National Trust houses, colleges, museums and listed buildings and, if you get time, call into a graveyard to say thanks.