Never Had It So Good/ Bad

They were the best of times they were the worst....In the upside down world the optimists want us to see "the positive"; global economic growth, rising confidence, soaring stock market, a decrease in "extreme poverty", a decrease in over-all "violence"- the many indicators they will point to as a reason to take heart. They admit there are "problems, of course", but with increasing wealth and new technologies we should be optimistic. Many see this as the triumph of libertarian ideology, getting the administrative state out of the way so that competition can unleash innovation. They read stuff like this from Inc.com: "The scientific case for radical optimism

The soon-to-be-released title is the latest from renowned Harvard linguist Steven Pinker, and it's not hard to see why the book appeals so much to Gates. Lately, the billionaire-turned-philanthropist has been using his popular blog and even the pages of major magazines to argue for more optimism. The world, he insists, might seem like a total mess sometimes, but we're actually making steady progress making it a better place for all of us."

Liberals are basically in agreement although they bemoan the state of our "politics", the mean tone and demeanor; they would like to see poor people have decent shelters to go to while conservatives are fine with cardboard street houses and effective policing. Of course the non-ideological "muddling class" also celebrates economic growth and after all the years of recession, a little happy news. A tax break, maybe a raise. They focus on gains in the cultural sphere; the me-to movement, gay marriage, a DACA deal, solar panels.

Pessimists are much harder to be around. On the right you have preppers, worry over discrimination against whites and conspiracy kooks, on the left it's those with all the gloomy studies and statistics, those using C words like catastrophic and collapse and crisis and capitalism. They blame America and "The West" and think technologies all have hidden problems. They don't even like the good leaders like Obama.They read stuff like this, from David Spratt in Resilience:

"The problems posed are wickedly exquisite. The former NASA climate science chief James Hansen has long warned that 2°C is a “recipe for disaster”. It is clear that we now face an existential threat to human civilisation as the climate teeters on the edge of passing further system tipping points that would make the task of avoiding that threat tremendously difficult."