Is reality as bad as we are taught it is?

"We have been taught to believe that negative equals realistic and positive equals unrealistic."
- Susan Jeffers

That was a short act, but a tough one to follow.

Think about all the people you know who believe that the world is much worse today than it was a generation ago. Some believe that End Times (or Armageddon) are near. Some are so afraid to go out of their homes that they tremble in fear each time they do.

How realistic can they get? Fear is real and negative.

The citizens of the USA, one of the safest nations in the world in which to live, have been taught that, realistically, there are terrorists everywhere who are willing and ready to sacrifice themselves in order to kill as many Americans as they can. Yet these same people blithely accept that more Americans murder other Americans each day than people are killed in most of the 27 or so wars of the world.

There are fewer wars ongoing today than ever before in history. The average over the past century has been 28-32 wars at any one time--at all times.

People help each other around the globe daily, far in excess of any global assistance that has happened in history. We aren't taught about that much.

People in most countries are healthier than they have ever been in history. They live longer in countries where health standards and teaching of health measures are taught (and there is no war going on) than ever before.

Fewer babies are dying at birth than ever. Death in childbirth is rare in most countries if any level of health care is available.

We, the people who inhabit this planet, are far more civilized than any generation before us. We believe in human rights on a global scale, as never before. We act to improve health standards as never before. We don't hate as much as our ancestors.

More and more people are treating strangers as friends they have never met than as enemies waiting to harm them. Our media don't teach that. Some people look beyond the media and the naysayers.

The world truly is a better place than it has ever been in history. Our media would want us to believe the opposite--"if it bleeds, it leads."

We have been taught that negative equals realistic. But we don't have to believe it.

And we can work to make sure that the world gets even better for the generations to follow us.

That's something worth believing.

Bill Allin
Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems, striving to teach what people need instead of what the media and industries want us to believe.
Learn more at http://billallin.com