The adolescent brain possesses adult capacities for reasoning and manipulation but lacks mature judgment. The adolescent believes themselves invincible, resists external constraints, and prioritizes immediate desires over long-term consequences.

Industrial civilization exhibits these same symptoms.

Omnipotence fantasies drive our faith in technological salvation. We will engineer our way out of climate change. We will replace depleted fisheries with aquaculture. We will escape Earth’s limits by colonizing Mars. The pattern is not confidence, but denial dressed as optimism.

Immediate gratification structures our economies. Quarterly earnings drive corporate decisions. Election cycles shape political priorities. The long-term becomes invisible. We extract concentrated energy accumulated over millions of years, enjoying abundance now while externalizing costs to future generations.

Rebellion against limits defines our response to ecological boundaries. We treat constraints not as laws of physics but as challenges to overcome. Soil depletion? More fertilizer. Water scarcity? Deeper wells. Climate change? Air conditioning.

The adolescent is not evil for being immature. But the adolescent must eventually grow up—or face the consequences of perpetual juvenility.

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