On the New Fad for the Old Stoics

Is the world getting better
Or is the world getting worse?
Give us your votes. Place your bets.

Does it matter so much when
You yourself are going to die
And probably rather soon?

Never mind. Different question.
Back to the first. World better
Or undeniably worse?

Okay, little animal
Composed of billions of clones
Hosting many smaller lives,

Creature of language tangled
In the vagaries of mind,
Tell us your take on the world,

The whole world, since you surely
Know. Marcus Aurelius
Suffered in his river camp

From aging, indigestion,
Insomnia, dreary chores
Of imperial duties,

The memories of bodies
Strewn hacked to pieces, rotting,
And the thought that the old days

Were already forgotten
Mostly in a century
And all the lives lived in them.

Language gifts you this knowledge,
Gifts you opinions. The world
Says nothing better nor worse.