Too much of our impression of the world comes from a misleading formula of journalistic narration. An evidence-based mindset on the state of the world would bring many benefits. The world is not falling apart. The kinds of violence to which most people are vulnerable—homicide, rape, battering, child abuse—have been in steady decline in most of the world. Autocracy is giving way to democracy. Wars between states—by far the most destructive of all conflicts—are all but obsolete.