Think Our Best Days are Behind Us?
Three Ways to Resist Declinism
A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 59% of Americans say the country’s best years are behind us. This attitude is an example of declinism, the belief that things were better before and will keep getting worse. And declinism is bad for our own wellbeing and for society.
People who adopt a positive attitude about the future experience better mental and physical health, greater meaning in their lives, and more success in their relationships and careers. Declinism works against all of this. It also stops people from asking what they can do to make things better, and it orients them away from others. If you believe things are falling apart, it is easy to see other people as part of the problem rather than as partners in the solution.
So how do we resist the pull of declinism? Here are three strategies.
The first strategy is to transcend the political partisanship that fuels declinism. Pew’s data shows that Democrats are currently more likely than Republicans to say the country’s best years are behind us. But this is not a fixed belief of either party. Pew asked a similar question back in 2014, when Democrats controlled the White House and Senate, and found that Republicans were more likely to have a declinist outlook. Other research has found a similar pattern, with outlook shifting based on which party holds the White House rather than any real change in circumstances. A lot of what feels like settled pessimism about the future is really more dissatisfaction with politics in the present.
Recognizing this can help you step outside the moment and see the bigger picture. Politics is only one part of life, and a great deal of what actually improves our communities and our world often has little to do with what happens in Washington D.C. Discoveries, innovations, and positive cultural shifts can happen regardless of which party is in power. Not to mention a lot of important policy work occurs at the state and local level, which rarely makes national headlines but can have a more direct impact on our lives. And no side of the political aisle has a monopoly on good or bad ideas. Letting politics become all consuming can blind us to everything else that is possible.
The second strategy is to improve your media diet. Research shows that news headlines have grown more negative over time, and that we are reinforcing this trend, since negative headlines get more clicks than positive ones. Social media makes this worse. The posts most likely to spread are the ones that provoke outrage or anger. A steady diet of this kind of content skews our picture of humanity. When negativity dominates our feeds, it becomes easy to conclude that people are worse than they actually are, and that the world is in a state of decline. As I discussed in previous newsletters, people are more honest, kind, and trustworthy than we assume they will be. And most people online are not spreading toxic content. That behavior comes from a small and vocal minority, but because we see so much of it, we assume it reflects how most people actually behave.
Becoming more aware of how negative content pulls at our attention is the first step. The next is to actively seek out stories of what is going right. There are plenty of fascinating and inspiring ones out there, even if they take a little more effort to find.
The third strategy is to foster a better appreciation for the progress we enjoy today. In research from our team at the Human Flourishing Lab, we found that Americans who believe life has gotten better over the last 50 years are far more likely to expect continued progress over the next 50 years. This pattern held true across demographic groups, including age, gender, income, and political party.
Declinism treats the current moment as if it exists in isolation, disconnected from the long record of improvements previous generations made. Taking the time to recognize what previous generations have built, discovered, and overcome can foster the kind of gratitude and inspiration needed to keep that progress going.
None of these strategies require ignoring the challenges of our time. They simply ask us to be more intentional, using our own agency to cultivate a hopeful mindset. Believing our best days are behind us is not just an attitude about the past and present. It is a mindset for the future. We are far better off choosing to believe that the best is still ahead, and that we each have a role to play in making that vision a reality.
Have a great weekend!
Clay