We hear so much bad stuff going on that we lose perspective, but truth is that there has never been a better time to be alive than right now. World poverty and war related deaths are both demonstrably lower than they have been in recorded history.
The 1930s were "The Dark Valley" (title of a great book on the subject). With hindsight being 20/20 we have a very hard time understanding this, but in reality it was NOT clear that freedom oriented democracy was going to be successful, or even survive. Countries set up with free market orientation and emphasis on personal liberty were doing very poorly in the 30s, with economic stagnation, enormous unemployment, and political instability. Meanwhile, Communism's press releases were generally taken at face value - and there was objectively enormous economic growth in the Soviet Union in the 30s, as they shifted from 19th century agrarian economy towards 20th century industrial one. The Fascist dictatorships provided order, stability, and economic growth that the democracies were hard pressed to match.
If you believed in the rule of law and personal liberty, the 1930s were truly frightening times. More than a few intelligent people honestly believed that the future of democracy was bleak. Seeing what happened from 1939 - 1941 would only make freedom's future look even darker...because people who lived through the times didn't know what would happen at Stalingrad, Leningrad, Midway, Guadalcanal, Kokoda, and the North Atlantic.
