If you look at all of this as History In The Making, it’s a little easier to swallow. If I worry whether Libya is going to become part of the caliphate (it is), I will make myself sick. If I remember to observe, knowing there is nothing I can directly do to influence it, I’m much happier. These are forces that are far bigger than any of us. I’m almost happy when evil seems to triumph in some of these cases because I think it reveals truth. Evil that can be seen can be resisted. Fabian, occluded evil is so frustrating - you can yell at the top of your lungs and no one hears.
While the book has some parts I had to doggedly plow through, overall it was fascinating and compelling. The bottom line is that the cycles of history show that we are entering a season of "winter" --- death of the old, then rebirth of something new.
The authors (remember this was written in 1997) predicted that historical cycles showed that around 2005, give or take a few years, there would be something cataclymic such as a worldwide economic crash. (2008 Great Recession anyone, which actually got rolling in 2006?) Also that world-reordering wars have happened throughout history about every 80-90 years, so we're due one between now and about 2026 (according to them).
I bring this up because of your point about realizing that there are much larger forces at work here than maybe most of us tend to pay attention to. This was one of the great things for me about reading the book: it made me realize that I'm not wrong that the world seems to be cracking up, but that winter has to come -- there is nothing we can do about it -- for there to be a reset and renewal in the future.