Some of us feel bludgeoned by media's focus on bad news, going from crisis to crisis. It's good to step back and get a bigger picture of reality, and that may mean reading a whole book by a serious author.
Increasing civil and economic freedoms have produced tremendous progress in our world over the last hundred years according to the book reviewed here. Apparently this author doesn't mention the importance of religious freedom, so I wouldn't have that in common with his views, but he recognizes the good that has happened:
"Despite what we hear on the news and from many authorities, the great story of our era is that we are witnessing the greatest improvement in global living standards ever to take place. Poverty, malnutrition, illiteracy, child labor and infant mortality are falling faster than at any other time in human history. Life expectancy at birth has increased more than twice as much in the last century as it did in the previous 200,000 years. The risk that any individual will be exposed to war, die in a natural disaster, or be subject to dictatorship has become smaller than in any other epoch. A child born today is more likely to reach retirement age than his forbears were to live to their fifth birthday."
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