Some good news from last year (and cautious optimism for the future)
When I started my newsletter in 2009, I titled it The Cautious Optimist. It wasn’t easy being an optimist that year with the horrible recession playing out. But optimism is in my nature and I prefer to focus on good news, opportunities, and life’s pleasures rather than on the darker side of life.
But my outlook has been profoundly challenged over the past few years, not only by the pandemic but also by other horrible news that keeps washing over us. I find more and more people are thoroughly demoralized. They take the position, “The world is a giant mess and it’s going to get worse.” These are the folks who, when you say, “Isn’t it a beautiful sunny day?” respond with, “Well, but the forecast for tomorrow is rainy and cold.”
I find this stance to be exhausting and unproductive. It saps their and my energy. It leads to stagnation rather than positive action. There is no doubt that much is wrong in this world of ours, but focusing exclusively on the bad news isn’t going to help.
9 significant pieces of good news from 2022
So I was surprised and delighted to read an article titled “The Bright Side of 2022” in The Wall Street Journal. The author, Zachary Karabell, acknowledged that there was much misery in the past year, but he chose to focus on some wondrous events and achievements. Here are some highlights:
The U.S. midterm elections were “remarkably normal.” There was high turnout, especially among young people. Losers mostly acknowledged they had lost. Neither Republicans nor Democrats were thrilled with the results, but democracy clearly won.
European nations took in millions of Ukrainian refugees, spending billions of dollars to help them resettle.
Contrary to the belief that the world is de-globalizing, global trade hit a new high. Many countries lessened their dependency on China and strengthened their connections with each other.
Inflation, while still a problem, is slowing.
Wage gains for many workers are the highest they’ve been in the past 50 years.
Poverty rates declined, especially childhood poverty. About 1 in 10 children live in poverty, which is much too high, but the rate was 1 in 4 in 1993.
Scientists achieved the first viable fusion reaction that created more energy than it consumed. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but this breakthrough has the potential to transform the fight against climate change.
A group of artificial intelligence research companies released ChatGPT, a highly sophisticated program that can simulate human prose. AI is scary, but as Karabell pointed out, so were the inventions of the printing press, the telegraph, the radio, television, and the internet. All of those inventions brought trouble as well as benefits, but I doubt that many of us wish that we didn’t have them.
The Russians invaded Ukraine, but otherwise the world was remarkably stable. No revolutions, no economic collapse, and an apparent decline in angry nationalism.
As Karabell concludes, the coming year is likely to be “a muddling through, with billions of people striving for a better life and, for the most part, achieving it. Much will continue to go tragically and spectacularly wrong but that shouldn’t keep us from recognizing and celebrating all that goes right.”
Happy New Year!
