It's not the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)

People who think the world is getting worse have a highly selective memory.

That's not saying the world is getting better, of course. And really, it's specious to suggest that there's an empirical method for determining "better" or "worse"; there's individual perceptions of those concepts, certainly, but that indicates merely the frame of mind of the perceiver at the moment of contemplating whether the world is "better" or "worse" than it used to be.

Or at least presumably that's what's implied by or "worse": That the overall state has worsened relative to a previous point in time—but when exactly? Worse than when gasoline cost under $2 per gallon? If one has a gas tank to fill, by that criterion, yes. Worse than when a plague wiped out significant portions of the population? Not so much. Unless you fear that overpopulation is a problem (about which one certainly could be legitimately concerned), but even with that factored in to the equation, it's questionable to consider having another rampant disease to be the best way to handle that issue.

Perhaps the only constant throughout time (at least pertaining to human perception thereof) is a latent fascination with perceiving that world, in the present moment, to be at its worst and deteriorating. Not that it would be a persistent thought, but that either consciously or unconsciously, our intellect employs an intermittent defense of having that most abject of outlook, perhaps to counter the realization of how impotent we tend to be regarding the state of the world.

Most religions have some story pertaining to the end of the world. Perhaps that indicates that there's some innate but unconscious fascination with wanting the world to end Why would we fancy that notion (although not necessarily realizing we are)? The answer, it seems to me, is ridiculously simple: That is the literal, unequivocal worst it can get; that is the point at which it cannot possibly get any worse, by whatever criteria one chooses to use to perceive it.

There's nowhere to go but up.

It's optimistic, in a manner of speaking.