People never seem to be content in their own time. "What happened to the great?" they ask. "Why is music so terrible nowadays?" They compare, say, Nicki Minaj to the Beatles. "Why is writing so awful?" They contrast Breaking Dawn with the Great Gatsby. However, what these people are doing is entirely unfair. One cannot compare the best of one era or generation to the worst of another; this is beyond comparing apples and oranges: it is comparing the juiciest, most attractive and delicious oranges of the bunch with the rotten browned apples the garbage man forgot to collect last week.

Yes, our current time has its problems- it has many, and I'm not arguing against that. However, the past had its fair share of issues as well. We are no better or worse off today, only in a different situation. Overcrowding sucks, but on the other hand, it's only possible due to increasing lifespans. Not using Africans as slaves any longer is a pretty good thing, but, to put it as tactfully as possible, a lot of Americans don't exactly pay Carlos and his carpenter buddy even minimum wage. And sure, the Holocaust is over and done, but- beyond some countries still denying it even happened- we, for the most part, sit idly by, our passiveness allowing genocide to continue in Darfur.

This concept doesn't apply solely on a large scale, nor can it only be employed by cynics- the examples above were negative only for illustrating the similarities of today and yesteryear; it can be noticed in smaller settings as well, and it can bring a sense of optimism.

I have begun to loathe the phrase "faith in humanity" purely due to people whining about how theirs was lost due to the behavior of one moron or another. The people complaining of such don't seem to realize that there has been ridiculous behavior at least since man realized he could get away with it, and probably before then as well. It's nothing new, and furthermore, why is it some moronic twelve-year-old's complaints about her fictional and scientifically improbable hangover (from her fictional and, once again, inaccurately depicted night of smoking pot with her unfortunately actual seventeen-year-old boyfriend) that causes these people to lose their "faith in humanity" rather than the Holocaust, or child abuse, or people drowning kittens?

Wholly nonsensical to me.