age of whiners

So I'm listening to NPR on my way to run some errands this Saturday morning. I believe it was a local version of NPR. The format was a call-in radio show. The topic today? Define what people will call this 'age' in future. For example, 'this is the age of aquarius'. I listened to about 40 minutes of this show and every single person calling in - and I mean every single one of them - defined this age from a pessimistic perspective. The Age of Corporatism, The Age of Separatism, The Age of Fear, The Age of Technofascism,... During a break, as I was thinking to myself that this is really The Age of Snivelling Ass Clowns Who Call Into Radio Programs™, the host of the show pointed out how pessimistic everyone was and asked for someone to step forward with a more optimistic view. What happened? Another 30 minutes of more pessimism. Perhaps this is a function of it being a Seattle area radio broadcast where people are generally depressed and paranoid or perhaps it's a function of only these types of people spend the energy calling in. But I think in general this attitude is more ubiquitous. I look back at how my parents had to live when they were my age and I wouldn't trade positions for one minute. I don't worry about food, I can afford a car, I have very little stress in my life, I have shelter - in total, I have nothing to really worry about. And I'm guessing none of these people calling in do either. When some catastrophe does eventually happen - I'm talking something like a meteor hitting earth not something as local as the Twin Tower events - we'll look back at what we really had; an easy life.