Is the world as bad as we think?

Le Regard Libre N° 33 - Clément Guntern

Today's man is inclined to think that the world, the society in which he lives, is in the worst possible shape. What he sees around him hardly leads him to accept the contrary; wars, famines and violence are omnipresent.

You don’t have to go to a bar to hear it. This line of thinking, so widespread in the media and in politics, paints a picture of a world full of dangers and disasters. Intellectuals also join the chorus of alarmists lamenting the world we live in. Figures whom we would expect to be capable of analyzing contemporary problems allow their words to be dictated by the sentiments of the moment, such as the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States, who spoke three years ago of a world that had «never been as dangerous as it is today.».