You can "look around everywhere" and see a lot of evidence that the world is better than it ever has been. That doesn't mean "perfect," but choose whatever indicator you like—life expectancy, average wealth—and it looks better than the past. People are quick to forget that for most of history, the vast majority of people lived as either hunter-gatherers or indentured servants to kings and emperors. Russia had laws at one point that literally bound its serfs to the land they were born on. They lived and died in the same place and were legally prevented from going anywhere. There are plenty of targets for reform, but it's hard to imagine anyone with the slightest knowledge of history looking around and going "this is all horrible, how did we let it get so bad?!"