[Added, May 2, 2025: My opinions have changed a little since I first wrote this piece almost four years ago. I no longer consider myself a climate ‘activist’ but more of an ‘apologist’ or even ‘anti-activist’, though I would prefer my position to be known as ‘realist’. But I will not change anything in the original published edition (except I have ‘bolded’ the first word), since it reflects a particular time and view, and, well, there is not much I would want to change anyway. We are still already fucked, though not perhaps for all the reasons previously expressed e.g. fossil fuel use. Mainly, we have outlived our usefulness to the planet by kicking off the much needed return to increasing levels of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere (though our contribution to that effect is actually vastly overstated). The net outcome of that (outliving our usefulness) is that we are now in the winding down stage to eventual species extinction – falling birth rates (below replacement levels) and self-imposed disease vectors and open vulnerabilities to many fateful features of reduced life expectancy, vividly pointing to that – an eventual ‘special’ ending also suffered by every other known species. That is something I hope I am wrong about, but the chances of that are, I think, really minimal.]
‘Fucked: Put in a difficult or impossible situation’.
That is as good a secondary definition as any, of a perfectly respectable (I’m declaring it so) though much abused English word – found in every English dictionary.
I have never been one for ‘gilding the lily’ or otherwise camouflaging reality to satisfy public opinion. But the world is full of prudes and those who acquiesce to them. So it is not surprising to find that this word is most commonly hidden by blanks or other symbols in cowed obeisance to social norms. Well, fuck social norms. If you are going to use the word, then use it in all its glory and fullness.
Greta Thunberg knows well how to use it. And she does so to great effect (its best use) in this video tweet…
This is something really special, and should be viewed (and acted on) by all. I am in complete agreement with every word the young woman says here – except for one thing.
She correctly and pointedly says…
“If we don’t change, we are fucked.”
And she later says (emphasis mine)…
“Millions have died from COVID-19, Zika, Ebola, West Nile Fever, SARS, MERS. Up to 75% of all new diseases come from other animals. Because of the way we farm and treat nature, cutting down forests and destroying habitats, we are creating the perfect conditions for diseases to spill over from one animal to another and to us. The next pandemic could be much, much worse. But we can change.“
…all of which is true, except for the last four words – “But we can change.“
If we could change, we would have already done so. It is not going to happen, any which way you look at it …and the view we always take, of anything, is always ‘post event’. This view, Greta’s view – that ‘we can change’, is also ‘post event’. The time when ‘change’ could have made a difference, even if it were possible, has long passed.
Let me say that, individually, some of us have changed. Though never enough of us to make a difference – and those of us who have done that have been derided and ridiculed by society. I myself, a couple of decades ago began the process of changing to a non-animal diet and to simplifying my life by moving away from urbanised centres of living. Others have gone further than myself. It is never enough, and for the masses, I suspect, the thought has never occurred to them – or the upheaval would have seemed insurmountable.
As evidence for that, I cite this typical global view article from ‘American Thinker, dripping with sarcasm at Greta’s video impertinence. This is not in any way an endorsement of that article. It just illustrates the fact that we cannot – and therefore never will – change. This attitude is too deeply embedded in our cultural psyche.
And so, what I am saying is, we are already, and inevitably, fucked.
…condemned by our own actions to the ‘difficult or impossible situation‘ of a life of ‘grass huts’ and endless ‘berry picking’ for a lucky few survivors, so sarcastically forecast by American Thinker.
Not Something Else 