I remember hearing someone on BBC radio (I forget who, unfortunately) giving one of the yearly Reith lectures. He commented about a survey he had seen.
The survey showed that people expected their standard of living to get better in their lifetimes and expected a catastrophic nuclear war in their lifetime or in the children’s lifetime.
What is the point if it will all end in war? How can people be optimistic and pessimistic at the same time?
Every man finds his own challenge, his own safety. We are all standing on an infinite staircase to heaven. There is no higher or lower position that means anything. But we can be happy or unhappy wherever we are.