The New York TimesThe New York Times

Is the World Really Falling Apart, or Does It Just Feel That Way?

By Max Fisher

12 Jul 2022 · 6 min read

Editor's Note

Metrics would suggest that we have less to complain about than previous generations. But then again, metrics don't capture how bleak living in the internet age can feel.

Has the world entered a time of unusual turbulence, or does it just feel that way?

Scanning the headlines, it’s easy to conclude that something has broken. The pandemic. Global grain shortage. Russia's war on Ukraine. Political and economic meltdown in Sri Lanka. A former prime minister’s assassination in Japan. And, in the United States: inflation, mass shootings, a reckoning over Jan. 6, and collapsing abortion rights.

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