A baby is born with sparse hair. In ancient times, that child would be left to die. Another baby girl takes her first breath. She's killed within hours because tradition demands a sacrifice whenever an adult passes. An elderly grandmother, too frail to keep up with the nomadic tribe, awakens to find herself alone in the wilderness. Her family has moved on without her. Forever.

Watch a little bit of news today. War. Conflict. Disaster. Political rage. Natural catastrophe. The images bombard you relentlessly. Your mind absorbs this steady diet of despair until a dangerous conclusion forms. We live in the worst era in human history.

But do we?

Yuval Noah Harari documents these ancient practices in Sapiens. He reveals how our ancestors lived millennia ago. Today, the contrast is staggering. We mourn deeply when any child dies. We spend billions caring for the elderly. We've built elaborate systems to protect the vulnerable. What once was normal… infanticide, abandonment, routine brutality… now horrifies us.

Yes, suffering persists. But compare today's pain to yesterday's normal. A century ago, children worked in factories. Two centuries ago, millions lived in slavery. Go back further, and the examples multiply. The very fact that we're horrified by these practices reveals how far we've traveled.

The Yogis teach that spiritual progress manifests in expanding compassion. As consciousness grows, so does our circle of care. We hurt more watching others suffer. And it’s not because the world has grown worse, it’s because we've grown more sensitive to pain. Our heightened awareness of injustice signals our evolution, not our decline.

The news cycle creates a dangerous illusion. It focuses your attention on the exceptions. The breaking, the failing, the murder, the destruction. What doesn't make headlines? The millions of acts of kindness performed daily. The steady decrease in extreme poverty. The countless lives saved by medical advances. The ordinary decency practiced by ordinary people.

If you've followed the thread this far, you already know what comes next. The sensitivity to suffering that makes today's news feel overwhelming? That's not “a bug.” It's a signal of your rising consciousness. The grandmother abandoned by her nomadic tribe couldn't have imagined a world where strangers cross oceans to help earthquake victims, where doctors donate months of their lives to operate on children they'll never see again, where millions of people carry devices that instantly connect them to aid organizations halfway around the globe.

We stand on their shoulders, seeing further than they could dream. Are we perfect? Far from it. Do we still have work to do? Absolutely.

But we are not witnessing humanity's decline. We are participating in its greatest chapter yet, and all you can do is the best you can do.