When things look this bad, they are usually not as bad as they seem: we over-analyze, and tend to expand the size of the problem. This always occurs when negative data can so specifically be exploited. We live in the age of instant news and near-simultaneous awareness of the world's events, and our ability to do so grows every second. The current economic and sociopolitical trends are simply an intense focus on incredibly minute details of the world economy and infrastructure. On a large-scale level, current changes in world policy, politics, and finance will either eventually balance themselves out or evolve into newer, more functional entities. Historically, there has always been conflict, people have always been selfish, and the fall of an empire is largely a matter of changing power from one leader to another, both of which in the end turn out to be two shades of the same color. The daily progression of science will allow us to make a future in renewables with our current standard of living, displacing the need for fossil fuels. Globalization leads to free trade of goods and ideas, and instant communication lets us maintain a standard of global human rights. Much of the world economy, though shaken by the financial crisis, is still chugging along largely unaffected at street-level. Humanity’s ship has righted itself before, and will again.

On the other hand, there is no sign yet when the global recession will be ending or if a collapse of the European Union will trigger a worldwide depression. We don't know if there can be peace in Syria or Libya, or between Pakistan and the Taliban, Yemen, Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan. North Korea is worrying everyone, China's one-child policy, female infanticide in Asia. Religious fanaticism. Human rights abuses. Unimitigated greed. We face the loss of fossil fuels, the ozone layer, endangered species, marine life, forests, ice caps, the middle class, and the human race to drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, murder, suicide, cancer, disease, hunger, and war. The polticial system has reached a point where people will vote benefits for themselves and corporate-funded politicians will give it to them without thinking of the consequences. Humanity is the frog in the slow boiling pot of water.

Is it a matter of perspective, or are we on the edge of something truly terrible happening?