"Life is tough, and the path that it provides is even harder. Many people may give up, and others may fail. Civilisation may crumble, it may fall. My tombstone may be abandoned in a the middle of an overgrown wasteland. But as long as someone exists to read this then I know civilisation still stands a chance. And if you can't read this, sod off you yob you can't get me now!"
At the state of education in Britain today I won't bet on anyone being literate in seventy years...