I don't think anyone claimed that the present was overly bright.
Staring into the future without Bruce's hopefull(y) rose hued bifocals might cause corneal damage from a flash peeking out from beneath a mushroom cloud, the flush radiating from our then irrevocably overheated orb or reflections from the deep blush we'll sport when we realize that our generation could have done something to alter the path that we're on.
The middle ages were terrible if you had the misfortune of growing up in Europe. The Chinese on the other hand began it by the ascendancy of the Tang Dynasty who governed through a Confucian Meritocracy, lived under a universal legal code, built the Grand Canal, a massive undertaking that linked North and South China and allowed even the poor to travel and trade throughout the realm.
The Chinese invented block printing at this time. Their physicians developed smallpox vaccinations, everyone could advance through education. When their chemists invented gunpowder it was utilized in firecrackers, sparklers and fireworks, something even the poorest of the poor could enjoy.
From a Eurocentric perspective the centuries leading to the 2nd millenium might seem a mean time indeed, but for much of the world it was a great time to be alive!
Tang dynasty - 618 to 907 Current Era.
"Widening our perspective may alter our conclusions" - something Confucius probably should have said.
Terry