The conventional wisdom about our world today is that this is a time of terrible decline.
关于当今世界的传统观点认为：这是一个急剧衰退的时代
And that's not surprising, given the bad news all around us,
而这也并不令人奇怪，考虑到我们身边无处不在的坏消息
from ISIS to inequality, political dysfunction, climate change, Brexit, and on and on.
从伊斯兰国到不平等，政治机能失调、气候变化、英国脱欧等等
But here's the thing, and this may sound a little weird.
但我是这么想的，而我的想法可能听起来有些奇怪
I actually don't buy this gloomy narrative, and I don't think you should either.
我对那些沮丧的观点并不买帐，并且我希望你们也一样
Look, it's not that I don't see the problems.
并不是说我没有看到那些问题
I read the same headlines that you do.
我也跟你们看一样的头条
What I dispute is the conclusion that so many people draw from them, namely that we're all screwed
我所质疑的是很多人从这些头条中得出的结论，即我们把一切都搞砸了
because the problems are unsolvable and our governments are useless. Now, why do I say this?
因为这些问题都无解，而我们的政府又没有用。那么我为什么要说些呢？
It's not like I'm particularly optimistic by nature.
并不是说我生性特别的乐观。
But something about the media's constant doom-mongering
而是媒体的那种不断地执拗于问题
with its fixation on problems and not on answers has always really bugged me.
而不是解决之道的悲观论调一直困扰着我
So a few years ago I decided, well, I'm a journalist,
因此几年前我决定，嗯，既然我是一名记者
I should see if I can do any better by going around the world and actually asking folks
那么我应该看看是否可以通过周游世界并问问各地的人们
if and how they've tackled their big economic and political challenges.
他们是否并且是如何解决他们所面临的大的经济和政治挑战的
And what I found astonished me.
而我的发现震惊了我
It turns out that there are remarkable signs of progress out there, often in the most unexpected places,
原来已经有了很多显着的进步的迹象，并且经常是在那些出人意料的地方
and they've convinced me that our great global challenges may not be so unsolvable after all.
而这也使我确信我们面临的那些重大全球挑战，也许并不是那么的完全无解。
