[Verse 1] Once we planned our lives in chapters, wrote our stories straight ahead Now precarity's the author, uncertainty instead Jobs that come and go like seasons, dreams on shifting sand When tomorrow's always threatened, how do we make a stand? [Chorus] Future's fading, can't you see it Cruel optimism keeps us dreaming Capitalist realism steals our hope away Three questions guide us through the haze How does precarity rearrange The way we see tomorrow's page? [Verse 2] Berlant shows us cruel attachments, promises that never pay We keep reaching for the good life while it slips away Fisher paints a world of limits, no alternatives in sight Are these different kinds of blindness or the same lost light? [Chorus] Future's fading, can't you see it Cruel optimism keeps us dreaming Capitalist realism steals our hope away Three questions guide us through the haze Do these theories complement each other Or describe a different kind of smother? [Bridge] What happens to a generation When the future's just frustration? No narrative to follow through No timeline tried and true We're floating in the present tense Without future's confidence [Verse 3] Millennials and Gen Z wandered into adult life Expected paths have all been scattered by economic strife Can't imagine getting married, buying homes or settling down When the future's just a question mark, we're lost and never found [Chorus] Future's fading, can't you see it Cruel optimism keeps us dreaming Capitalist realism steals our hope away Three questions guide us through the haze What does it mean when generations Can't project their life's foundations? [Outro] Precarity reorganizes how we dream Cruel optimism and realism - different streams? Generations lost without a future's gleam These are the questions, this is the theme
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