International society has been having a seemingly rough time recently. You can't help but see all these awful things that are happening when you go online or tune into the five o'clock news like ISIS, terror attacks, people shooting at cops or vice versa, pro-athletes abusing drugs or their spouses, the death of a beloved celebrity, another college student getting raped, natural disasters, Zika virus - the list continues on. Most cannot help this feeling in the pit of their stomach of impending doom and this sudden loss of hope in humanity. How long can we go on like this before the society dissolves at the seams?
In case you did not watch Donald Trump's speech at the Republican National Convention earlier this week, he painted a vivid and dark image of what the world is like now and how much more worse off we would be with Hillary Clinton as president and then stated, "I alone can fix it" and that "safety will be restored" on January 20th, 2017. Then, proceeded to not tell us how he'll fix all of our "problems". The entire convention seemed run off this horrible energy of how "chaotic" of a world we are now and that we need a need a savior to come fix it all (a.k.a Donald J. Trump).
In this day and age, it is very easy to be pessimistic. It seems easier now more than ever to believe the world is coming to an end as we know it. People from older generations preach to the younger generations that we are simply naive and ignoring the tragedies that happen every day. Except, this is a lie that is being shoved in the faces of the American people every single day.
Our world is not, under any circumstances, falling apart.
As long as any form of violence or crime is present in this world of ours, our media will always have enough stories to tell. The news will always focus on stories that make us angry and strike a chord with us because it easier to get more views with a headline such as "Mass Shooting Kills 12" rather than "Boy Rescues Puppy from a Well". When we see happier stories we tend to go, "Aw, that's so sweet! That's great!" in the moment and move on. But when we see stories revolving around tragedies, we remember them so easily and become angry or uneasy when we remember these horrible events. Sudden doom is always more attention grabbing compared to great progressions. We are psychologically more drawn to dramatic events.
We must also remember that while these tragic events are indeed tragic, compared to the whole, aren't really as horrible as we think. More people in America get killed by every day accidents such as deer collisions and bee stings along with every day diseases like the flu and pneumonia. The probability of being in the midst of a mass shooting or a terror attack are very, very slim. You actually have a greater chance of being struck by lightning or being bit by a shark.
The homicide rate in America has been on a steady decline since the '90s. Violence against women has been on the decline for decades and is currently at it's lowest. Democracy in the world is on the rise. Conflicts between nation states are almost at an all time low. The media plays into viewers being more psychologically drawn to dramatic explosions and gun fire. Do not play into them. You will be a lot more at ease if you start to follow trend lines and stop keeping up with horrible headlines. Do not play into the politicians who are trying to convince you that our world needs saving.
We happen to be better than ever, thank you very much.
