The mid-late 20s are much worse.
We are both giving our subjective experience here but mine is based on not just my own experience but from what i've observed around me and the transition from teens to mid twenties seems to be often a time of turmoil possibly due to the reasons i gave before
I think that stage might even be necessary to a certain extent because it is part of the flying the nest process whereby a person becomes dissatisfied and ready to move onto a new stage. We don't have coming of age rituals like some indigenous tribes do, in our industrialised societies, to mark these transitional periods so some might be left wondering why they feel certain things when in fact there are many people going through similar experiences
My late teens early 20s were pretty much a golden age-- gaining experience and discovering new perspectives is actually quite rewarding, especially if you're in university, because there's nothing about that place that is in any way realistic. Not knowing about reality means that it could be anything… and you're willing to believe that all of these theories that have been around since forever can have some sort of real world application, and create a better, brighter world.
You can continue to discover new perspectives right through your life.....we are all evolving our perceptions all the time; if you're not learning you're dead
Concerning theories about making a better world...they are not unrealistic ideas its just that you have to be realistic about how you are going to engage with them
And then you discover the reality, and it completely crushes your idealism.
That's your subjective experience; the reality is that there is a struggle between people motivated by power and people motivated by conscience. The people of power are very strong and this might make people feel that they cannot be opposed but they are opposed all the time and it is because people have opposed them effectively that we are not all working 14 hours a day in the mills with no education, no vote, no democratic representation, or health support like we were in the industrial revolution
This is as much what young people want to rebel against as all of the 'injustice' of the world. Nobody likes to hear that clinging to unrealistic ideals is impractical-- and in reality, practicality rules. It's hard to face reality… I had a hard time with it as well.
We don't live in a 'practical' world we live in an inefficient world that only runs smoothly for the people at the very top and this is because the people at the very top decide how the world is going to be run. They're not motivated by practicality, they're motivated by power
It is not practical to cling to redundant modes of thinking and behaviour and that is why the economy is in the state it is because people have been clinging to redundant modes of thinking and behaving; crashing the economy is not 'practical'
It gets better in your early 30s, when you can embrace practicality and compromise your idealism with reality… it's easier to affect small changes that move everything in the right direction (or the direction you believe in) than to stage violent radical revolutions that are either destructive, incapable of finding support, or just won't work.
Revolution doesn't need to be violent and if you compromise to these people i guarantee you will wake up one day a slave if you aren't already
Anyways, on a related note-- I think that 'carpe diem' and 'seize the day' are bullshit. I don't even know what they mean. HOW does one seize the day, exactly? By cleaning the house? Life is not an exciting vacation where you can do whatever you want and you can always do something awesome every day.
But if someone has figured out how to do something awesome every day, please tell me.
It is more about adopting a certain perspective towards life....that it is an experience and that we should try to enjoy that experience; due to the inequality of the system this is easier for some than others; some are just trying to keep their heads above water
The one thing you won't regret on your death bed, is not having done more work
Should we live to work or should we work to live? If the system doesn't allow us to work to live then its time to change the system