Keep this in mind, though David. Source was Time Magazine, but this World Bank measure squares pretty much with what I witness in my own travels.

"This year, the World Bank's Poverty Analysis reported, "Living standards have risen dramatically over the last decades. The proportion of the developing world's population living in extreme economic poverty...has fallen from 52 percent in 1981 to 26 percent in 2005.... Infant mortality rates in low- and middle-income countries have fallen from 87 per 1,000 live births in 1980 to 54 in 2006."

I realize that's a bit different than dealing with the US/anti-intellectual issue, but the sky is not falling. Peak oil is a concern but we quite frankly have all sorts of energy sources still untapped. Oil supply isn't so much a problem for several hundred years as is the potential price impact of the downside of a peak. (Regulate/restrain OPEC?)

Then there's natural gas, nuclear, hydrogen (needs a better catalyst still), and biofuels (tremendous potential here). Even Africa has seen (in pockets) dramatically improved governance and much stronger growth rates in the past ten years. Quiet successes, but the beginnings of a movement are afoot.

I'm trying to lift your spirits, improve your outlook here. No idea if that's even possible.