But look about at the world over the past thousand years and tell me how terrible our track record is again. Our track record is not demonstrated by how many problems we think we have today, but how many problems we've dispatched. How much time are you planning on spending worrying about whether or not you'll be invaded by barbarians today? And I mean really honestly worrying about it, not striking a pose as a social signal about how fashionably pessimistic you are.
There's been a lot of progress; it only feels like it doesn't because as you climb the Maslow hierarchy your wealth allows a net larger number of problems to emerge. But they are, ultimately, lesser problems. A key component of staying sane in the modern world is to remember this.
That seems to be a primary concern of the Arizona state legislature: http://www.google.com/search?q=arizona+sb+1070