In just a slight segue here:

I have been glad that I was most likely going to be dead by the time the stuff really hit the fan (not so sure anymore- we seem to be in accelerated mode) and how glad I am not to be 20 years old having to deal with such reduced expectations, huge problems that they have to address just to keep the planet livable.

And then one day it hit me: They are going to be all right. (At least, the generation after this current crop of young folks will be all right. The current 20 year olds have to deal with their parents and grandparents.) Youth is energetic and idealistic, inventive and innovative. Besides, they will not know anything different.

What I was lamenting is the disparity between my generation expected - and mostly, got- and the stark realities facing the young now. That is not what they will concentrate on.