About the cynical part, I think most people are in some way the sum of their life experiences. We all have some input in developing our personality, but there is only so much you can do with what you're given (in general, I know, exceptions always exists). For me, it was the experience of most of my friends and family throughout my teenage years and early twenties just kept dying on me. Freak accidents (motor cycle etc.), heroin overdose, stabbed to death in drug deals gone bad, freak medical conditions (one brain aneurysm, one heart attack at friggin 20 something) and so on. Eventually you just give up making friends, because, whats the point? Apparently people just don't hang around and you get tired of burials. I probably did develop a cynical streak over the years.
I also spend a lot more time listening than talking. It seems to make people feel uncomfortable in your presence
Politically I'm an anarchist. Political philosophy that is, not the comic book villain anarchists throwing old cannon ball shaped bombs with lit fuses around, thank you.
As for the world... I don't think it's headed for anything better at the moment. Mostly because nothing has really changed where it matters. Old social structures are intact, people in power are mostly still in the same positions. The expendable ones are the vulnerable ones. Nothing has really changed the last few centuries there either. Only difference is the degree of hardship. It will take something much more significant than just a pandemic to change things. Although it's still a theoretical option, total nuclear war seems to have been mothballed for a while, despite many peoples expectations of a such in the 1960 to 1980's. Social unrest creates just that, social unrest. It rarely brings any significant improvement that isn't just improvement in name only, because old structures are often still around. So, short of a giant meteor impact or Yellowstone erupting catastrophically, I don't see the world changing overnight for anything, good or bad. Just gradually oscillating between getting better and worse for the majority of the common man/woman.
As for the sources of much of the worlds problems, I believe the way humans seems to shy away from individual responsibility and prefer to have other people do their thinking and decision making. We're selfish bastards as a race. I know from professional experience how draining man management can be when you are responsible for decision making for a bunch of people. You almost get the feeling that people prefer someone they can empower to make their decisions for them so they can blame them for when things don't work out 😄
Overpopulation is the second big issue I see as a threat to a "better world" (my vision of a better world, the rest of the worlds mileage may vary). The increasing strain on resources and environment keeps edging towards a point of no return in sustainability.
Which is also why pandemics do now and will in the future even more do so, hit us hard, because the sheer number of people living in proximity to each other has exploded. A cornucopia of bodies for an entrepreneurial little virus to explore.
One of those things (among many things) I often asked myself, where is it going to end? I work in a line of business that is, when I really think about it, about putting other people out of work by automating processes and work flows. I see many businesses (our customers) who seems to focus on cost cutting when they don't sell enough. Cost cutting is often synonymous with reducing the payroll figures. So, everyone is happy, staff numbers are down, cost are down, we can now sell stuff cheaper... or pay dividends to the shareholders or whatever. Guess what, lots of other companies had the same idea. Lets reduce staff numbers. People without job security are less likely to spend money. I don't have the big data, so that was just a thought, maybe something could get into a self reinforcing downward spiral there, with humans as the obsolete part in the end.
As for Australia and if the virus spreads... well, there is a big outback out there. I'm not @Guard Dog , so I don't feel like putting on some banana tree leaves and untanned hides and grab a boomerang and go hunting for roos and grubs the rest of my days. With a bit of luck, we (humans) may develop a bit more herd immunity. It won't save individuals, but it may save the many.
Not sure if those were any of the answers you were looking for, but I'm happy to elaborate.
Edit: I.e. I would have to ask you to ask more specific questions 😛