Societal pessimism describes the concern that society is in decline and heading in the wrong direction. In our most recent eupinions report we find that people are generally more optimistic about their personal lives than they are about the future of their country. In this episode of our podcast, we discuss this gap between societal pessimism and personal optimism. We argue that one source of the considerable anxiety felt by so many might be the perception that many of the processes that go on outside the bounds of their daily lives and experiences are so complex that they cannot do much about them.