An important aspect of estimating current events is appreciating where we are, where we're coming from.
When I was a child, there was still a "Darkest Africa". There were no maps, literally, of the interior. The study of our world under disciplined conditions is called Science. Our perception and understanding of our immediate and extended habitat has expanded geometrically.
Geometrically means 2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256, I think, and so forth.
The details, unlike the arc, are not important.
What I am describing is a soaring arc of understanding.
And the Net, of course is expanding that consciousness interactively to billions.
So, compared to where we were just one lifetime ago, we're doing good.
We're expanding our collective consciousness under rigorous scientific standards for those who do the due diligence.
For followers of antique ideologies, not so much.
But the point is our understanding is finally coming into its own.
No matter the natural disasters, knowledge and technology and basic understanding of our social and geophysical world is going to grow even more. That's the arc we're on.
To illustrate, here's where the great leap started, in 1957:
http://www.nationalacademies.org/history/igy/
