When Will it Matter?

Is this really going to matter fifty years from now?

Change out the number fifty for any other number and you have yourself a common argument used by people for where they should focus their attention.

Agreed, there are some issues which don’t have lasting impacts beyond the moment, but how do you filter those from those that do?

Anybody can pick an arbitrary number of years in the future where anything we do now won’t matter. Is it really a fair argument to use, or something we use to justify some emotional stability in ourselves or other people?

I think a better assessment would be to ask whether a constant repeat of this action, over a number of years, will have a lasting impact. Or perhaps, “Is this where I should really be focusing my stress right now?”

Otherwise, we can justify any behaviour as inconsequential.