It seems like every day I wake up to some new tragedy playing out on the news. The recent shooting in Dallas, the killing of — yet another — innocent, black man at the hands of the police, and the massacre in Orlando are just a few events in a long line of tragedy and maliciousness that goes back just about as far as any person can remember or record.

It feels like these events are stacking up. Like things are only getting worse. My Facebook newsfeed would have me believe I must pick a side in some sort of war — cops or minorities, Islam or Christianity, Republican or Democrat, Red or Blue — and all I want to do is despair, to collapse from the emotional exhaustion of it all.

But despair in and of itself is easy. I have chosen, deliberately, not to despair. I am not just blinding myself from these tragedies and pretending they don’t exist, either. On the contrary, I am declaring that yes, these tragedies and massacres are happening, which is alarming, but the tragedies can never overshadow a simple fact. We are now living in a time of unmatched peace, nonviolence and prosperity that has never before been witnessed.

The amazing good we see around us is, perhaps, what makes tragedies, like the few I mentioned here, feel so awful, because despite all of that good, we still have a great level of suffering. Here is the silver lining, though. We are made witness to the suffering and we know it to be an injustice.

The hyper-loop of information that is the modern media — Internet, phones and television combined — seem to want us to despair. Following the “if it bleeds, it leads” mentality, they hold up the worst humanity has to offer, saying all the while “This is horrible! Don’t forget how dangerous the world is! More on this at 11.” And so we despair at this, but the silver lining is that we care enough to despair. We can all recognize the moral outrage of these events, and thanks to this, our morals become more resolute.

So yes, this system we’ve built is showing us pain and suffering over and over again. But it is also the same system by which previously underrepresented movements are gaining a much needed voice, and only by witnessing the suffering can we fight to prevent it. These tragedies were always happening; it’s just now that we are seeing it. Therein lies the solution. You cannot fix a problem until you recognize it.

So do not just despair yourself into inaction. Recognize despair, and remember that it is the natural outcome of all the good humanity has created. Take a step back and remember that most people, the silent majority, are despairing at these events along with you, and that means most of us are indeed good.