I’ve Got Good News and Bad News

I have recently come to the realization that things are not as bad as they appear. Despite the doomsayers and alarmist that are constantly assailing us from the TV, from the internet, and from the newspaper, if anyone bothers to read newspapers anymore, things are actually getting better.

Violent crimes are down in most places in the world. People are better fed, and better educated. Employment is up. People are living longer. We are treating people better than we ever did in the past. The reason that it doesn’t seem that way is that we are also better informed. We hear about the things that go wrong. Bad news attracts attention and attention sells advertising.

There are all of these outlets hungry for attention grabbing stories. There are people everywhere with high quality cameras in there cell phones taking videos of anything and everything that happens. Whenever something disastrous happens, chances are there is at least one and probably two or three cell phones taking a video of it.

So relax. The end of the world is no nearer than it has ever been. In fact, it’s probably not as near as it has been in the past. It’s like the old jokes about there being good news and bad news. The good news is that things are better than they ever have been. The bad news is that things used to be worse than we ever knew.


Sweet dreams, don’t forget to tell the ones you love that you love them, and most important of all, be kind.