Just kidding. That's total headline link bait. I don't really think that I'm fundamentally better than anyone. I do claim, however, that while I don't have it all figured out, I do have an outlook that is relatively positive, and I strive for the right amount of perspective. That doesn't make me better than anyone, but I bet it does make me a lot happier.
I was just looking at the social media and the typical politically charged nonsense on the Internets, and it's clear that already, a week after Christmas, people have shifted their view of the world from one of wonder back to one of fear. It reminds me of that time Louis CK was on Conan and talked about how, "Everything is amazing, and nobody is happy." It's so true. Americans are hell bent on being scared of violent crime, even though it has been generally on the decline for decades (invalidating both sides, the "gun up" and "gun control" factions). People worry about terrorism, something that at best has a 1 in 20,000,000 chance of killing you in your lifetime, when there is zero chance of terrorists ever materially bringing down the western world. It's not like nuclear annihilation is likely, or we'll see something like World War II with 56,000,000 deaths. We're the most mobile we've ever been, and turning a corner toward doing it in a more sustainable and clean way. In my lifetime, we've gone from playing black-and-white video games in arcades to connected, high resolution games that we carry in our pockets. Most of the world's knowledge is at your fingertips, if you're willing to engage your fucking brain and sort out facts from fiction. We're landing rockets now that sent up a dozen satellites. We live twice as long as we did a hundred years ago, and we can replace body parts and beat diseases into submission.
Listen up, poopy pants, because the Renaissance has got nothing on us.
So the way I see it, you can be a part of all of this awesomeness, and contribute to it in any way you'd like, or you can be scared of the world. That bad things happen is not reason enough to do the latter. We still have a lot of work to do in the US, but the opportunity is unprecedented. Don't squander it.
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