2024-09-25 05:45:16
Good morning, dear reader,
In New York, in the plenary hall of the United Nations, important people are speaking to the world community at this very moment. US President Joe Biden has warned against the rise of dictators and called for international cooperation. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is concerned about the escalation in the Middle East. Important speeches will also be made here today. Finance Minister Christian Lindner defends his skewed budget during a government questioning in the Bundestag. Environment Minister Steffi Lemke must explain how saving and nature conservation fit together. Three of these speakers are already halfway through their lives, and the fourth may be as well. Joe Biden is 81 years old, Mr Guterres 75, Ms Lemke 56, Mr Lindner 45.
They say that wisdom grows with age, and there is definitely some truth in that. Life experience can promote insight, soften the mood, and create empathy. But the opposite is also true: age can make you stubborn, ignorant, and lazy. There are countless examples of this from Moscow to Berlin.
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However, those who mature as they age and are sensitive to the addition of age have a decisive advantage over younger people: Thanks to many experiences, he or she can put himself or herself in other people’s shoes, change perspectives, and recognize new points of view. Taken together, the countless experiences and insights of so many mature people should actually be enough to make the world a better place for all people. wonderful place close.
It is all the more depressing when the opposite happens. When the gap between many poor and a few super-rich people continues to widen. When more and more people in Africa and Asia have to leave their homes because climate-related droughts make it difficult for them to survive. When war rages again in Europe and the enemies in the Middle East slaughter each other. When the glaciers melt, the weather becomes the enemy and the oceans resemble sewers. When not everything is running smoothly here either, but bureaucracy is rampant, the infrastructure is crumbling, the pension system is on the verge of collapse and the climate crisis is causing brutal storms at ever shorter intervals, causing billions in damage. When researchers report this morning: The cloudbursts of the past few days in Eastern Europe were “the heaviest rainfall ever recorded in Central Europe” – and such catastrophic weather will now “to the rule”. Worse still, it will get worse due to unchecked CO2 emissions, which is why Germany should prepare for regular evacuations.
So when you see too many things going in the wrong direction, yes, it can be pretty depressing. This is especially true if, unlike Mr Biden and Mr Guterres, you are not yet in the autumn of your life, but only at the very beginning. This is probably a major reason why many Young people nowadays so pessimistic look to the future like never before – both in terms of the state of the earth and their personal prospects.
A Schufa study, which is available exclusively to our editorial team, shows: The majority of young people in this country have lost confidence in their future financial stability. Only 49 percent of 16 to 25 year olds believe that they can achieve an equivalent or better standard of living than their parents – the lowest figure since the survey began.
The uncertainty among young people has consequences that extend far beyond individual sensitivities. My colleague Annika Leister describes here how more and more young people are turning to extremists in search of simple answers: The Greens are out of the picture, today the AfD is tempting.
I don’t know about you, but I’m concerned about this development. Also because I see it confirmed by personal impressions. I have been teaching at a vocational school for 14 years. In the 2010s and up until the Corona pandemic, I met young people there who were motivated to the core in every year group. Their joy of life literally made the classroom vibrate. That has changed radically. Now, when I enthusiastically talk about my everyday work and describe the exciting professional life, I am met with skeptical looks and a depressed mood. The future is “crappy” anyway, one student explained to me: “The climate is broken, home ownership is unaffordable, and we will never get a pension.” At first I thought that was a cynical exaggeration, but when I thought about it, I found few counterarguments.
Now, Daybreak is a format that not only provides insights, but can also encourage. Yesterday’s issue on “Utopia Germany,” for example, sparked numerous delighted reactions from readers. Today, however – and I sincerely apologize for this – I must leave this text with a thought in my mind. If young people are our future, but these young people lose faith in the future, then things are not looking good for our country. It is high time that a few influential encouragers raised their voices and created positive visions that people can get excited about.
There is a ray of hope after all: With such encouragers, it doesn’t matter how old they are. They can also be cheerful senior citizens.
Joe Biden has already spoken, today it is Volodymyr Zelensky’s turn: The Ukrainian President wants to United Nations General Assembly in New York to demand support for his suffering country and to express his willingness to achieve a just peace. Afterwards, French President Emmanuel Macron and the German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.
Yesterday at the UN, tomorrow in Berlin: US President Joe Biden will visit the German capital at the end of his term of office. The date has been set for a few hours: The 10 October It is supposed to be that way, and then Biden wants to stay for another two days. The Berlin police are already on alert and are preparing meticulous operational plans for the best-guarded man in the world.
What is the state of German unity, 34 years after reunification? The Eastern Commissioner Carsten Schneider is presenting its annual report today, which it has tellingly titled: “East and West – free, united and imperfect”.
Apropos Ost-West: Coming soon Angela Merkel her memoirs. Today, she is being honoured with a celebration to mark her 70th birthday, at the centre of which – typically for the physicist – she is giving a scientific lecture: the art historian Horst Bredekamp is speaking about the Age of Enlightenment. Title: “Light and Dark”. This also applies to Merkel’s time in government.