Is it my impression or are things devolving?
 well there is likely plenty of cause for concern, there are a large percentage of the population (in the US at least) who are gearing up to launch us into civil war, and they are absolutely serious... between the Q-anon&#x27;s fighting the cabal, to the throngs of MAGA trumpets, the far right is galvanizing and whipping their propaganda into a lather as they prepare to punish the libs, save the children, form their own handmaidens tail style fascist state with Trump at the wheel they will bring the country back to god just in time for the return of Jesus...
and that&#x27;s just American fringe politics, add to the very real food shortages that will only get worse in the short term and the inflation, and the rising rents, the crashing markets... the aforementioned religious war aside, we are staring down the barrel of a class war that most people are too distracted by nonsense like Depp&#x2F;Heard or Roe&#x2F;Wade to perceive the inevitable breakdown of trust that is lurking just around the corner. Not everyone is blind, just the masses, an ear to the wall in Davos is all you need to recognize the hand of intelligent design in all of this mess.<p>There are two primary schools of thought in play here, one is a devolutionary ideology focused on a return to god, traditional values, homeschooling, and a massive rollback of mankind&#x27;s progress landing us back in the 50&#x27;s at best, and somewhere in the middle of the Victorian era at worst. 
On the other hand there is the progressive movement toward a more enlightened future, a gradual dismantling of localized nationalism, religious dogma as law, and our greed based economy in favor of a more balanced and rational approach to wealth, production, and equality. And IMO if humanity is ever going to project ourselves out into the universe successfully, or even perhaps simply to survive for more than 50 more years, we absolutely must work together as a species. Cooperation and unity is the only way, but with roughly 40% believing that would land them in the fiery pits of hell... well we seem to have reached an evolutionary impasse where progressive minds that desire a road forward need to either convince and convert the others, or find some way to nullify their objections, the trump years taught us that reasoning with them is nearly impossible. fanatical religious conviction anchored in delusion is difficult to reverse. So then it is on to plan B I suppose... hope fully whatever form that takes is over quickly. Then we can start to worry about the north pole, I hear its relocating to somewhere in the Indian Ocean...<p>My point in all this is simple, Things are NOT good, and in fact are going to get worse before they get better, a LOT worse. But this is not hopeless, nor is it devolutionary. This is in fact the dawning of the next age of mankind, and as with any major change or growth  spurt, it is not going to be easy… growing pains are unavoidable and this one is gonna be a doozy. But the reality is that in spite of the difficulty, we are going to be much better off once it is said and done, and the world that our children will inherit will be a much better one than the one we grew up in. I can look back to my high school years in the early 90s and recall how hard it was for me as I was struggling to accept my homosexuality  and how much harder it was because everyone around me had been mocking and bullying me for it for many years prior to my own realization. Yet now I see kids coming out in middle school to love and acceptance and support… churches fly rainbow flags for pride month, it’s a very different world, and while homophobia is still alive and well, its not universally accepted as the norm and is condemned more often than not. We continue to grow as a species and we do I one person at a time, by choice, every day… we write the narrative that defines out universe, we look at the world with hope rather than fear, love instead of hate and we manifest those qualities on the world around us. By keeping your mind open to beauty and hope, challenging your fear and doubt and hate, and speaking positively to the people you come in contact with you create hope and positive energy that absolutely has an effect on everything and person you come in contact with.<p>If we stare fear and hopelessness in the face and deny it, it looses its power over us and it cannot also then spread its negative influence THRU us… you don’t have to be a carrier of this insipid poison, you can choose to seek out the good and positive things in the world and seek to enhance them and bring them to the attention of others… if we all make the conscious choice to be better… then the whole world will change and mankind will be able to come together in unity and evolve instead of destroy ourselves and each other with fear, violence and hate.
This is our choice and we must make it anew every single day.<p>In the words of my favorite student of catastrophism…<p>Eyes open, No fear, Be safe everyone