Deaths of Despair

More ranting about pain; physical and psychic. A comrade mentioned something he had read about Chinese youth committing suicide by jumping off a cliff. He thouhgt it said something about Chinese society and rising ennui, malaise, Weltschmertz. But it occurs to me this is a global phenomenon here in late-stage capitalism and while I'm not qualified or prepared to do a global study, I think a look at American youth is suggestive. Dissolution, despair, exhaustion; whatever we want to call it is manifesting in epidemic proportions. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "three out of five teenage girls felt 'persistent sadness or hopelessness' in 2021. One in three considered attempting suicide and one in ten did attempt it. The rate for boys is worse. 2,800 teenagers committed suicide in 2021. Like gun deaths and homeless deaths this is carnage society accepts as the cost of doing business. Avert your gaze. Grotesques like Joe Manchin or Matt Gaetz don't kill themselves, just innocent kids. Not that you can blame them. They may not fully understand the collapse but they can feel it, sense it, understand the broad outlines of the insane mess they will inherit. Their despair is earned. Even if they don't live in dysfunctional situations or experience trauma, it haunts the collective imaginary, the zeitgeist. My future is more of this, only worse?