Gloom and Doom Always - Why?

I cannot ever remember people talking about things getting BETTER - the glass always seems to be half empty - it is the same in the US as it seems to be in India ...

Why is it that doom and gloom seems to attract people and good news does not? Those that cry out loud that the World is Ending, the World is Ending get all the attention - and if someone were to say - Chill out - things are actually better than they were, he or she is considered a nut and may get thrown into some deep, dark dungeon - Seems like Humans WANT to hear bad news and cannot stand to hear the good that is out there

Mumbai - for example. Crowded? Oh yes. But then - has it NOT been EVER crowded? Not really. In the late 1970's there were fewer cars and perhaps there were fewer people - I remember when there was rationing of basic foodstuff - rice, wheat, sugar, milk - but even then there was plenty to be bought on the black market - so the problem was not supply - but deliberate constriction of the supply by those that wanted to make money bypassing the usual mechanisms of the markets - Is Mumbai crowded today? Oh yes - there are more cars, trucks, buses, people on the road - then again, how objective am I? I do not live in Mumbai now - just visit - so are my observations accurate? Tough to say really.

I do see however that Mumbai IS thriving in many ways - more roads, traffic does seem to move along quite well (really) and there are merchants/businesses that seem to sell what people want to buy - Matunga Market is a dense collection of roadside vendors, shops - handcarts, individuals trying to sell you whatever they are carrying - there is a buzz about the place - Crowded? hell yes ... but instead of seeing just the crowds, what I saw was the economic activity - buying and selling - exchanges - the movement and transport of goods of all kinds - people working on different things - Poverty? Oh yes - some of it can be difficult to see and walk by - it seems to coexist almost peacefully with those that are running brisk businesses and making money

There are many problems to be solved - and the human capacity to innovate and solve problems is truly limitless - the world IS getting better and not worse - so cheer up - I heard from a High School classmate of mine (Sai Prasad) as to how Africa is also getting better - With rare exceptions (Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, parts of China, Russia) people are living better and life is getting better for most people ...

I am an optimist - Tomorrow will be better than today - because today is better than it was yesterday!