As I worked on last week’s post Making the Most of a Charged Political Climate I couldn’t help but wonder if the world has really become as cold, cruel and dangerous as many of the presidential candidates are claiming.

Or, to put it another way, is the world really going to hell in a hand basket? Are those of us who work to make a better world wasting our time? Does our work even matter?

The fundraiser’s life has so many questions. So few answers.

Not willing to settle for the conventional wisdom of the cable pundits and the fear and smear pronouncements of many politicians, I looked at some trends and have come to the conclusion that humanity is actually headed in the right direction.

Here’s why I think so,  despite the stupidity and horror we’re exposed to daily.

I began this work in in 1963. I realize many tend to think of the ‘60s as a wonderful, simpler time filled with flower power, psychedelia, and progressive social change all taking place to a sound track powered by Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. But, empirical evidence suggests the world has become even more virtuous in the 50 years since.

Statistically, for example:

• In 1963 the average global life expectancy was 55 years. In 2016 it’s 71 years.

• Those of us in North America have added 10 years to our life expectancy (from 68 to 78) in the last five decades. But the biggest gains have been made in India, China, Brazil and South Korea.

• We’re not only living longer; we’re living better. In 1963 the Human Development Index, the quality of life measure compiled by the United Nations, for most developed nations was 0.48. For the poorest part of the world, sub-Saharan Africa, it was 0.11. Today for the developed world it’s 0.88 and has risen to 0.51 in sub-Saharan Africa.

• Despite the horrific battle zone and crime footage on the nightly news, casualties resulting from warfare a way down, dropping from 250 deaths per million at the start of the ‘60s to fewer than 10 deaths per million currently. Although homicide rates are a bit higher than in 1963 when they were at their lowest point in 40 years, they have been on the decline since 1991 and are nearing the low levels that existed back then.

And we seem to be making progress across a wide range of fronts and categories:

• In the ‘60s, 500 of every 100,000 people on the planet died of famine. In the past 10 years the rate has dropped to 3 in 100,000.

• Here in the US, when I began my career, millions of African Americans couldn’t vote, women couldn’t get a credit card unless their husbands or parent signed for it. Neither could they get student loans and often not even scholarships. And abortion was illegal.   Millions of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual Americans lived in terror of being outed. Today all that has changed or is changing for the better.

• Even protection of the environment, despite the threat of climate change, is moving in the right direction. I remember when I moved to Washington, DC in the ‘60s that swimming in the Potomac River was prohibited because of the threat of hepatitis. And there was no Clean Air or Clean Water Acts, No Endangered Species Act and no Environmental Protection Agency.

Of course we need to do more. Much more. But frankly, despite frequent stupidities and cruelties, I believe we’re headed in the right direction. Thanks in no small part to what the donors and you are doing to make the world a better place.

Do you share my optimism?

Roger