There is much to be optimistic about once you realize that the West is just 13% of the human population, and what happens here is not representative of what’s happening in the rest of the world. In fact, I’d argue this is one of the most optimistic times because Western hegemony is now crumbling, and neoliberalism is becoming a discredited ideology. Meanwhile, China is going from strength to strength, and the global majority is aligning with a socialist state that has emerged as a global superpower. I’d go as far as to argue that we may witness the reverse of the 1991 moment when the USSR collapsed and ushered in the unipolar era of US dominance. This time, it is the capitalist world that is crumbling, and a socialist power is poised to become a global leader.

These are turbulent times to be sure, and we will face monumental challenges like the climate crisis ahead of us. However, these may also force us to become more cooperative and abandon Western individualist ideologies. Watching the developments in China has been a huge source of optimism for me.

My recommendation is to actively follow the news outside the imperial core, and you’ll see that there is a lot of human progress happening in the developing world.