The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse now gallop across the minds of some Americans, thoroughly inundated by media reports of economic calamity, governmental madness, a world afire (literally and figuratively), extreme national disasters, end-of-the-world predictions, societal breakdowns, declining moral values, wars and threats of wars, demands that we become a godless nation, acceptance of decadence, poverty, homelessness and downgrades.

The list goes on and on. In the lives of some thinking people, today is a time when something seems really wrong, The anxiety of it all simmers deep inside us. We ponder our fates to disasters almost unimaginable. We feel helpless to prevent what threatens to be the inevitable decline and fall of our cherished nation — and in considerably shorter time than it took for Rome to crumble.

Yet, are we not truly living in interesting times, perhaps only different in the type of threats faced by our forefathers?

An ancient Chinese curse (or is it merely a proverb?) says: “May you live in interesting times.” Well, if these times are not interesting, then what on Earth would qualify as such? The Age of the Internet, with instantly available information concerning events around the globe, has made this period most eventful, if not downright scary.

However, let’s go back in our history and remember the defeats of George Washington in New York and elsewhere in the early years of America. Suffering was rampant throughout the colonies as the revolutionary war wore on from 1775 to 1782. Imagine what Internet coverage would have done to minds reflecting on the suffering and hardship of those fateful years? Would 24/7 updates have discouraged our forefathers? I wonder.

Move forward to the years 1861 to 1865, the most violently tragic time in our history with hundreds of thousands of causalities and unimaginable suffering, especially in the South. All concluded with Abraham Lincoln’s assassination — and mere days after a war that sealed the very rights laid out in the Declaration of Independence. How would our connected society have reacted to those times? Would they have prompted us to lose our resolve? I wonder.

The years from 1914 to 1918 in Europe produced around 38 million casualties, both military and civilian. Even today, no one can fully explain why hostilities erupted. This so-called “Great War” also introduced new weapons capable of mass killing never before imagined. Whole generations disappeared in those years. Do you suppose those were interesting times? Perhaps too interesting.

Fast-forward just 21 years to the terribly eventful time of 1939 through 1945, when an estimated 60 million people died in yet another war, also “great.” Global deaths included 6 million Jews exterminated by Nazi Germany. Much of Europe was on fire during those years, arguably the most brutal period in all history. This was a war fought between supposedly civilized nations that should have known better. Yet, wasn’t that an interesting time?

Some of our own guest columnists, now long in the proverbial tooth, certainly say so.

Yes, the world changed forever with the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945 and especially when the Soviet Union detonated its atomic bomb in 1949. In 1950, the Korean War started when the Cold War was but five years old. Children were trained in our schools to hide under their desks if the United States was attacked by atomic weapons. Some of us gave scant thought to whether we would actually survive by doing so.

Yet, didn’t we live in interesting times?

The early 1960s saw the massive troop buildup in Vietnam that didn’t end until 1975. By then the loss of American lives tallied about 58,000. The United States lost this war and withdrew in defeat. And yet, weren’t those times of counter-culture, strife and politics interesting? Some of us would say so.

On Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida attacked our land, changing our lives forever. Everyone’s lives were altered the day this jihad was declared by radical Islamists. Almost a decade later Americans agonize over everything from airport pat-downs to the complicated pluses and perils of multiculturalism. Interesting times to say the least. 

The point of this fleeting recap of U.S. history? Throughout our long and proud past, almost every generation has faced great adversity. However, our present Internet connections sometimes overwhelm us and keep us in a state of flux. We continually ask ourselves questions like “Where do I go to hide?” or “What can I do to protect my family?” or “I worry about the future for my children and grandchildren” or, especially these past couple of weeks, “How do I protect my assets?”

Yes, these times like other times may seem daunting, even perilous, particularly as headlines online and elsewhere darken. But these times also demand the very best of us in terms of civic duty, sacrifice, courage and public involvement. At the end of each of these periods of turmoil came times of prosperity, hope, even occasional healing. Can we expect such times again?

I remind readers that history will prove most of the worries of man never materialize. Remember, too, the prayer of Alcoholics Anonymous: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.”

The History Channel has repeatedly shown the predictions of the Mayan Calendar, Nostradamus and others predicting the end of the world in December 2012, very similar to what some feared aloud back on Dec. 31, 1999. We hold otherwise. The Waco Tribune-Herald will publish in January 2013 or you will get a free lifetime subscription.

How’s that for optimism? Keep the faith.

Clifton Robinson is chairman of Robinson Media, which owns the Tribune-Herald .