<p><strong>"I would say that learning this material ¿ has lifted some of the existential weight from me. Things aren''t as bad as they are trumpeted to be. In fact, they''re quite a bit better, and they''re getting better, and so we''re doing a better job than we thought. There''s more to us than we thought. We''re adopting our responsibilities as stewards of the planet rapidly. We are moving towards improving everyone''s life." ¿Jordan B. Peterson, <em>Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life</em></strong><br/></p><p>Think the world is getting worse? You''re wrong: the world is, for the most part, is getting better. But 58 percent of people in 17 countries that were surveyed in 2016 thought the world is either getting worse or staying the same rather than getting better. Americans were even more glum: 65 percent thought the world is getting worse and only 6 percent thought it was getting better. The uncontroversial data on major global trends in this book will persuade you that this dark