I was thinking about this in terms of the "hard times create strong men" meme and variations of it. Yes, there are cycles in history and good and bad times. But assuming bad things will always lead to good is the worst way to rationalize your complacency with a bad situation. What's more, it's observably untrue. Hard times create strong men? Ok, what do microplastics in everything create? Or the destruction of the food supply? Or destruction of the family on a mass scale? Do those things create strong men? Actually, we know they don't. And we know all of those things are well underway. Stop deluding yourself this way.