Part 1/7:

Reclaiming Hope: Overcoming the Cynicism Trap

The Decline of Trust in Humanity

Over the past few decades, humanity has lost faith in itself. In 1984, about half of Americans believed that most people can be trusted, but by 2018, that number had fallen to just a third. This trust deficit extends to our institutions as well - between the 1970s and 2022, the percentage of Americans who trusted the presidency fell from 52% to 23%, newspapers from 39% to 18%, Congress from 42% to 7%, and public schools from 58% to 28%.