It’s difficult to perceive progress in ourselves or our community when the most prominent “news” seems to reveal that our health, wealth, our governments, and interpersonal relationships are getting worse.
Violence has been on a continuous decline for 5,000 years. A mere 200 years ago, 94% of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty, and now that number is less than 10%. (From Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels of our Nature).
Zooming out to see the big picture, and consciously monitoring the amount and type of “news” you consume, can help you perceive your own progress. Perhaps you’ll even be grateful to be living in what is by far the best time in human history for just about every metric that matters. Lucky us.
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