Where is your gratitude?
Dante assigns the ungrateful to the ninth circle of hell, a fate fittingly severe.
Throughout most of human history, infectious diseases have claimed millions of lives and led to the collapse of entire civilizations. Life expectancy barely exceeded 30 years for much of our past.
However, the present situation is not all dire. Despite the increasing polarization, infantilism, and banality evident in our politics and news, people persist in their daily routines. Garbage is collected, supermarket shelves are stocked, new inventions are discovered, and crucial indicators of our quality of life continue to trend positively.
Consider a scenario where news reports were released only once every decade. Summarizing a ten-year span of news would not involve the trivialities of Meghan and Harry’s escapades. Although frequently featured in our 24-hour news cycle, such stories aren’t truly newsworthy. Authentic narratives often move at a gradual pace, and gradual can sometimes be equated with mundane. On the contrary, the sensationalism of climate panic, warfare, crime, or homelessness dominates the 24-hour news cycle. Unfortunately, misery tends to captivate attention.
Life encompasses a spectrum ranging from profound joy to utter misery, yet death knows no gradations—it marks the ultimate finality. Consequently, our survival instincts have developed to be hyper-attuned to potential life-threatening dangers and less receptive to life’s rewards. News editors have learned to exploit this predisposition, distorting reality to accentuate the overwhelmingly negative, thereby amplifying fear and hysteria.
A mind consumed by negativity and outrage is prone to misinterpret reality. A whole culture might be swayed by entirely false narratives. Progress, being a gradual process, lacks the captivating allure of impending catastrophe or crisis. Paradoxically, despite living in one of the most privileged eras in human history, the most vocal voices—echoed by media and politicians—tend to emanate complaints, self-absorbed grumbling, and ingratitude. Absorbing these narratives, we’ve grown increasingly entitled and emotionally fragile.
Virtually all significant statistics indicate an upward trajectory. It’s not just about increased life expectancy—a substantial achievement in itself. Over the past eight decades, global health and wealth have markedly improved. The trend holds true even in the world’s most impoverished regions. With rare exceptions, all major benchmarks demonstrate global averages on the ascent. These encompass working conditions, literacy, numeracy, transportation accessibility, housing, healthcare, infant survival rates, longevity, and the prevalence of violence and warfare. Such revelations would likely astonish regular consumers of mainstream news. Even concerning issues like racism, homophobia, and anti-Semitism, considerable progress has been made.
Undoubtedly, signs of trouble persist. Yet, challenges have always existed and will continue to do so. Duplicity, corruption, and conflicts are perpetual companions, but they hardly qualify as groundbreaking news. The tragic war in Ukraine and persists, pockets of misery warrant collective attention.
Why does it seem almost sacrilegious to suggest we look back to measure, remember, and celebrate our accomplishments? Don’t these achievements transcend division and pessimism? Don’t they demonstrate our capacity to surmount formidable obstacles and convey the possibility of overcoming future challenges?
So, yes, there are concerns: indications of an impending global economic collapse due to insurmountable debt, potential pension fund collapses, rampant inflation, a precarious US dollar, looming new pandemics, and leadership uncertainties. There is good evidence to suggest the current crop of political and corporate leaders maybe the dumbest in human history, the leader of the so called free world exhibits undeniable signs of senility, and his likely successor is unlikely to be much better, but overall things aren’t so bad…
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