Global Dialogues

The panel on "Intergenerational Solidarity in a Broken World" stayed with me long after it ended, mostly because it made me uncomfortable in a productive way. What struck me most was how clearly the speakers showed that many of today’s global problems exist because decisions were made without thinking about who would live with the consequences. It forced me to confront a simple but unsettling idea: the world I am inheriting is shaped by choices I didn’t make, and the world I help shape will be inherited by people I will never meet. 

As I listened, I kept thinking about how often conversations around climate change, inequality, or conflict feel overwhelming and distant. They are usually framed as urgent crises, yet the responsibility always seems to be passed forward. The panel challenged that by asking what solidarity looks like across time, not just between people living side by side. That idea made me reflect on how easy it is to benefit from systems that are unsustainable, while assuming that someone else ,often a younger generation, will deal with the consequences later. 

On a personal level, the panel made me rethink my own habits of thinking. I tend to see myself as someone “in between”: young enough to feel the anxiety of the future, but not yet in a position of real power. The speakers pushed back against that mindset. They emphasized that intergenerational solidarity is not about waiting until you are older or more influential, it starts with awareness, listening, and responsibility in the present. That really stayed with me, because it reframed solidarity as something practiced daily, not something reserved for big moments or leadership roles. 

This conversation fit naturally into my broader experience at GGD Barcelona. Throughout the forum, I was constantly learning from people with very different life experiences, and I began to see how much knowledge is lost when generations don’t genuinely listen to one another. GGD didn’t feel like a space where one generation lectured another; instead, it felt like a shared effort to understand complex problems together. That, in itself, felt like a form of intergenerational solidarity in action. 

Participating in GGD has changed how I think about solidarity. I now see it less as a reaction to crisis and more as a long-term commitment, one that asks me to think beyond my own comfort, timeline, and lifespan. In a broken world, intergenerational solidarity is not just about caring for the future; it is about taking responsibility for the present we are actively creating.