PROPOSITION: BE OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THE WORLD

AFFIRMATIVE: Optimism Is the Rational Approach

-  KATHERINE MANGU-WARD

SCANNING THE HEADLINES or checking your bank statement, it's easy to succumb to pessimism. Humans are wired to focus on the negative a useful trait in a dangerous environment characterized by scarcity, to be sure-so we are by nature a wary, gloomy, and regretful species. But a clear-eyed analysis of the conditions in which we live and the direction of most trendlines reveals a larger truth: Optimism is the only rational outlook.

Let's stipulate that politics-domestically and globally-are legitimate cause for pessimism among those concerned about the rise of populist authoritarianism and the decline of liberalism and pluralism. To worry about politics isn't irrational; there have been times in human history when the political outpaced and swallowed the personal, private, and commercial.

Now is not one of those times. The world outside of politics continues to get bigger, richer, and more interesting every day. We are all swimming in the primordial soup of the Great Enrichment; more than 200 years of spectacular increases in wealth, health, education, mobility, and choice that extends around the globe. In 1820, 84 percent of people lived in extreme poverty; today that number is 8 percent. In 1820, 90 percent of the world's population was illiterate; now it's 10 percent.