This was always going to be a challenging decade. The 2007 post-Lehman liquidity crisis was a bad omen. So too a warming Earth, the huge and growing trade deficits, the deindustrialisation of the West, the rise of the BRICs, peak oil, the culture wars, Hurricane Katrina, Eyjafjallajökull,  widespread distrust and conspiracy theories, global warfare, the rise & rise of the military industrial complex, the prevalence of near-slave-labour in Asia, various strains of swine flu, and the fragmentation of political discourse. Fragmentation of political discourse? I bet you don’t believe in at least one of the above (probably peak oil or global warming).

Of course, with the last few weeks’ stocks slide, the last few days’ civil disorder in the United Kingdom, the deepening sovereign debt crisis in Europe, the debt ceiling debacle and so forth, there is a lot pessimism  sloshing about in the tank. It’s reaching maniacal levels, where people have so little to lose that they will go out and pillage and plunder in their local communities. I think the internet, and the hyper-connected, hyper-fragile new world we find ourselves in has left us all — myself included — a little crazy. After all, I did just declare that I thought temporarily declaring martial law to stop the rioting might be a good idea. Then again, I had just seen a whole load of London landmarks that I knew and loved get torched by a mob.

So it is no surprise that David Rothkopf over at Foreign Policy has compiled 10 Ways the World Could Get A Lot Scarier . For anyone seeking to study or profit from the ever-evolving global economic situation, I think it is essential reading. But at the same time, there is an entirely different narrative at work: the narrative of the history of human progress. Some people are unabashed optimists. So without further ado, as Birmingham, Manchester and London erupt into civil unrest, as the global economy hangs perilously in the balance, and as the stars twinkle down out of the August sky, I give you 10 Reasons for Optimism:

  1. We live in a beautiful, magnificient, humungous universe:

  2. Climate Change might not be so bad.
  3. The history of the human race is much longer, much more complex, and much more intricate than any of us can imagine.
  4. Reincarnation is probably real. I mean, if the oxygen, nitrogen, carbon and hydrogen that make up your body is producing your consciousness, why shouldn’t it produce some more consciousness after you die when those atoms and molecules get recycled by nature?
  5. If the market goes to Dow 3,000 or Dow 0 — as some analysts claim — you can go short.
  6. Gold is still available at $1750 an ounce, and silver at $40 an ounce. If the sovereign debt crisis grows (it will), that will seem like a real bargain.
  7. 3D Printing is just around the corner.
  8. Macbook Air
  9. Friends, Family & Love.
  10. And even if you’re absolutely certain that the world is going to hell in a handbasket, it’s going to be fascinating watching events unfurl.

For those who are looking for a bigger slice of optimism, consider getting Mark Stevenson’s ‘An Optimist’s Tour of the Future’