I was carsick, my head aching. But I knew the symptoms were simply panic at the news channel my father was blasting in the car.
The commentators’ voices were monotonous, but the flood of incidents they covered was overwhelming. The pandemic. Russia’s war on Ukraine. Global economic collapse.
System overload. System shutdown.
In “Is the World Really Falling Apart, or Does It Just Feel That Way?” Max Fisher analyzes how, although the world is improving, many perceive the opposite. Calamitous events enter our lives via digital media, and subtle gains in life expectancy seem minuscule next to a global crisis.
“Pessimism about one’s personal circumstances can easily become pessimism about the world.” Fisher explains how our perception of the world is often a self-projection. It is subjective, customized to each person’s life and every country’s situation. A famine, dire updates of a war, and the world seems to have upended. But while constantly hunting for tomorrow’s news, we neglect past benchmarks and the progress we have achieved.
The news montage was cut off abruptly. It was my grandpa phoning in, reminding us lunch was ready. He had stewed potatoes today, my favorite, and they were no good cold. The car was quieter with only his voice. The world began to spin again.
I thought about my family members alive and healthy. The wars that never happened. The mass shootings prevented. I took a deep breath.
Outside, it was a beautiful day.
