[darth_avocado]

It’s also possible that what affects you personally is actually going well, but what affects everyone indirectly is not going well. Rivers of plastic may be flowing in the ocean, but your local trash collector collects “recyclables” weekly for no additional charge and you feel good about sorting the trash.

[isk517]

A person is also more in control of what's going on around them personally, the larger that scope increases the less any normal individual has any effect. The ant can be optimistic about it's chances of surviving the winter while still pessimistic about what the fate of all of the grasshoppers.

[LorenPechtel]

Yup. Long range it looks dire. But things haven't fallen apart *yet*. I don't see why these are supposedly contradictory. The altimeter unwinding at a dizzying pace inflicts no harm on the occupants. But it's an awful lot easier to say "this time it's different" than admit what it says.