No Hell, No Hand Basket

At this festive time of year, there are always articles by War-on-Christmas types lamenting the sorry state of the world, the lax values of our society and of the youth in particular, and expressing feelings of persecution. "If only the atheists hadn't driven Christ out from Christmas, if only children were allowed to pray in schools, if only, this country and this world wouldn't be sliding into ruin." Fortunately, their underlying assumptions are all objectively, factually, wrong. People are kind and decent, and the state of the world has never been better. Without further adieu, ladies and gentlemen, some holiday cheer:

The United States is safer than it has been in two generations. Rates of both violent crime and property crime are down to levels not seen since the early 1960s. This downward trend in crime rates has been sustained for decades, and across the whole country.

The whole world is safer, on average, than it has ever been. Murder rates have declined by at least two orders of magnitude over the last few centuries. And on a more recent scale, large countries have almost entirely stopped warring with one another over the past 75 years, a situation never before seen since countries were invented.

People almost everywhere are wealthier than in decades past, and are living longer, healthier, lives. Around the world, life expectancy has climbed steadily, and birth rates have declined, to the point where there is now very little difference between those statistics in so-called developed countries and in many so-called developing countries. Even in those countries that are the very worst off, people are as wealthy and long-lived today as those in wealthy countries were just a generation or two ago.

Young people today are remarkably community oriented, they value marriage and stable families, and they get along well with their parents. School violence is down, drug use is down, and teen abortions are down. You will be excused for reaching the opposite conclusion based on the nightly news.

Finally, for those readers who still believe that religious affiliation has anything to do with compassion and good values: three quarters of Americans self identify as Christian, and far more Americans say that their religion is very important in their lives than do citizens of any other developed country. So No, American Christians, you are not members of a persecuted minority. You have every President and Vice President in history, and a disproportionate number of legislators, in your camp. Your children are welcome to pray and to read their Bibles in the public schools. You can relax.

Therefore, rejoice, my fellow Americans, and my fellow citizens of planet Earth. The world is a pretty great place right now, and you are among the most fortunate who have ever lived here. In the words of the Bard, "there art thou happy."