As an optimist, I believe that the world is headed towards a brighter future. For all of the missteps that humanity has taken over its short time on this Earth, we have also made extraordinary advancements that astound the mind that considers them. In general, the people of this world have been on a perpetual trend of becoming healthier with a higher quality of life. Despite the brief pockets of horrible violence, our world has never had a longer period of sustained peace.
Unfortunately, my cynicism does not allow me to trust many people. Although I have come to like The Sword of Truth series less and less over time, I agree with its first maxim: people are stupid--they would prefer to believe an easy lie because they fear it to be true or want it to be true rather than believe a difficult truth. Even though the far Right seems to be more prone to this as of late, I frequently see this with people posting comments with Leftist views as well.
What does this mean for me? Unlike so many people, I do not believe that the world or our nation are falling apart (at least, any more than it has in the past). Rather, I believe that by airing these problems that have long festered out of sight of most people, we have the opportunity to fix past mistakes, clear our differences, and come to amicable solutions. However, I also know that we are fighting against an extremely polarizing media which only emphasizes the "wrongness" of other people's beliefs instead of trying to come to an understanding of the issues and problems that underlie those beliefs.
I believe that we are moving towards a greater era, but that we need to work together to achieve it. I believe that we can overcome our differences and build a better tomorrow, but that it will be a hard fought battle itself to get us to stop fighting one another and start fighting our problems. I'm cynical about what people are currently saying and how they are behaving, but I'm optimistic about our chances of doing better.