Human beings have a tendency to practice what Hans Rosling calls “The Gap Instinct”.
This is the temptation to divide all things into two groups with a gap between them. Usually, the origin of that gap is rooted in (illusional) injustice.
Rosling explains why this is actually a “mega misconception” in his book “Factfulness”, where the basic premise is that the world is better than we usually think and we actually have data to support it.
Personally, I think part of this has to do with our difficulties analyzing situations outside our own Zeitgeist.
We have trouble looking at our present situation free from itself, which makes it harder to notice the crazy amounts of progress that we’ve been having in the last few years.
If the only framework we have to look at the world is based on the current reality, we may develop this eternal unsatisfactory emotional state, where everything is bad. Nihilism and pessimism are invited into our own minds, making us bitter and angry at life.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t aim to have a big impact on the world via the needed changes in our own individual and communal lives. We should! But, in order to do it in the best way possible, we should also be able to celebrate the progress we’ve achieved.
Inequality still exists, of course, and it should be a priority to help even more people to become the best version of themselves. But, every other day, make sure you're able to zoom out and look at the world, not based on current standards but based on the previous 7000 years of human history.
Notice how, even though sometimes our journey as species may look cyclical, is actually a vortex, a helix, moving upwards.
Find joyful fuel in progress.