In a world of gloom and doom, of environmental destruction, war, famine, disease and injustice, it is easy to get depressed, and feel hopeless. But, it’s illusory. For the most part, life is pretty good. At least, in my privileged, white, middle class corner of the world life is pretty good.
The sun shines and the birds sing in the trees. 99% of the time the world works within acceptable parameters. Millions of cars move down the roads without crashing into each other, most airline passengers don’t suddenly stab the person sitting next to them, and very few people plunge to their deaths from high balconies. It’s only when someone breaks out of that paradigm, accidentally or intentionally, that it gets anybody’s attention.
It’s kind of a paradox, or a conundrum, or a self fulfilling prophecy, or something like that. We are hard wired to look for bad news. That’s because a million or so years ago, those people who didn’t notice lions skulking in the bushes, they are not our ancestors. So, we’ve got this filter that shows us only the most negative stuff.
Of course some might say “That’s just the news,” and that’s true, but the news gives the people more or less what they want, i.e. endless violence and horror.
Still, while most of us watch, we don’t generally act that badly in public. Keep on the sunny side.
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