Had a few experiences recently of young, clearly privileged hipsters (who I strongly suspect never took up any real political fights in their lives) telling me why we’re doomed, doomed.

Ed Abbey was a man full of faults, but he did know how to call BS when he saw it:

“I say, oh you young fuddie-duddies, you young fogies, you prematurely middle-aged! You cappuccino drinkers! What right have you to be so dull, so blasé, so jaded, so conservative, so timid, so morose and defensive? At your age? So bored with protest, so disdainful of revolt? What have you done to earn your indifference?”

I very much like the concept that one has to earn one’s detachment, one world-weariness, one’s sardonicism. Go spend 10 years on the barricades, and then we’ll commiserate about the burden of the world and the crooked timber of humanity. I’ll even buy the first round.

Until then, go do your duty to humanity and contribute something… or make way for those who will.

[Photo credit]