Rumour has it that 2016 was one of the worst years in recent history. However, looking back further tells us a very different story about how horrible of a year we really had.

If I lump some of the bad stuff that happened last year together into one paragraph, then yeah, 2016 does sound like it really sucked. We saw countless acts of terrorism plague cities and nations across the globe, the oilsands hub of Fort McMurray was devastated by forest fire, war in the Middle East killed many and forced hundreds of thousands to leave the region, a wacky TV celebrity and real estate tycoon was elected leader of the United States and the entertainment industry lost some of its best talent.   

These are only a few of many events that have been cited time and again for lending the title of “worst year ever” to 2016. The biggest problem I have with this claim, though, is that 2016 was not the worst year ever. It wasn’t even remotely close. While the above atrocities of the human world are no events to simply bebrushed off and forgotten, it’s just not logical to relatively quantify 2016 as the “worst year ever.” There are too many great reasons for this.

First of all, 2016 wasn’t 1962, when the Cold War was arguably at its peak and humankind nearly brought about its own destruction, resulting in schoolchildren regularly practising hiding under desks — shitting their pants with worry. It wasn’t 1939 or 1914 when world wars killed millions fighting to maintain democracy, as well as those fighting against it. It wasn’t any single year pre-1928 before Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming discovered the life-saving effects of penicillin.

It also wasn’t a time where running water, comfortable accommodation, access to health care and education, medical innovation, technological advancement and democracy for all were hard to come by or completely unheard of. Of course, all these things still aren’t as accessible as they could be to people in every corner of the globe, but my point is clear. Life could be and actually was a lot worse for people in the past.

On another note, I’ll assume that the majority of the people who make the claim that 2016 was the “worst year ever” are either dangerously uneducated or just a bit naïve, having not experienced much in the way of societal negativity. In both cases, it’s forgivable.

It’s forgivable because human nature causes us to innately focus on the negative. Studies have shown that people tend to place greater emphasis on and have stronger recollections of negative events.

Our brains are hard-wired this way likely as a result of an evolutionary advantage. More information is processed in the brain when experiencing a negative event in hopes of preventing or avoiding future calamities.

Cave men and women who could do this survived longer and went on to have teeny little cave babies, and so on and so forth. That being said, it’s human nature to think this way, but we now have the ability to think critically and learn, as modern humans. Therefore, to quantify 2016 or any year as a bad year is understandable — but to call it the “worst year ever” is a bit immature.

In sum, a lot of crazy stuff happened last year, some good, some bad and a lot not as bad as it could have been. Bad things happen every year, sometimes more than others, but overall most people are still a lot better off than in years past.

This take-away applies to those who feel driven to make the comment that 2016 was oh-so-bad, as there is likely no known and comparable negative bad enough to warrant not making that comment. That’s fine, but it’s important to learn a bit of historical knowledge and then apply that to the bigger picture.

The year 2016 might have subjectively sucked, but objectively, it did not. Do some research, check yourself before you wreck yourself and look forward to an optimistic 2017.

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Bodan Worobetz

Graphic: Laura Underwood / Layout Manager