Back in the old days between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the sons of Aryas, we had to get our irreversible psychological damage locally, usually from abusive and handsy grown-ups who we were promised were trustworthy.

The internet (and ubiquity of smart phones) has actually been a factor in uncovering that yeah daddy wasn’t the only one kids had to hide from when he came home drunk. And the neighborhood police officers routinely beat the crap out of nonwhite teens minding their own business, sometimes shooting one while unarmed and not resisting.

That said, I’m pretty sure irreversible psychological damage is intergenerational. Greatests and Silents had gone mad from industry and isolation and passed their abuse to boomers further broken from overwork. Gen X was broken from expectations and neglect, and millinnials and zoomers are dealing with a failing society, a failing economy and a failing ecology.

My grandkid’s adult life is going to be shaped by multiple apocalyptic events, but probably slow ones like famine and forced climate migration.