Some of these views are also espoused within those countries, of course. Chinese analysts are often quite negative about China, Brazilian about Brazil, Indian about India and all about each other. The experience of being distinctly less powerful and affluent in the 19th and 20th centuries sowed a distinct lack of self-confidence and a strong conviction that good times are simply brief interludes. Corruption and conspiracy will ultimately ruin everything.

Yet what is most remarkable about the past decade is how those attitudes had begun to shift. That trend intensified after the financial crisis of 2008. Having been lectured to by Western authorities about the structural deficiencies of their economies, these societies watched the near-implosion of the American and European financial systems in 2008. Meanwhile, their own economies weathered the storm, as did China's. Elites in the emerging world began to believe -- rightly -- that they could navigate their own economic fate and determine their own policies just as competently and perhaps more so. The rising incomes of hundreds of millions of their citizens was further proof.

Sentiment may have shifted dramatically in the past few months, but there is a substantial difference between that and structural collapse and crisis. Yes, emerging world economies are seeing slowing growth relative to the heightened rates of recent years, and yes, the shift to domestic demand-driven economic activity is not easy. But that is not the same as re-writing the script of the past decade and turning the achievements of many of these countries into a mirage.

When it comes time to write the story of the first years of the 21st century, the global narrative will not only be the struggles of the United States to adjust to a world of diffuse power, or the rise of China and the decline of Europe. It will be the way that substantial portions of the planet emerged from agrarian poverty into the early stages of urban affluence. It will be the way the Internet and the mobile revolution anchored by the rise of China began to reshape the vast regions of sub-Saharan Africa; how India's middle classes started to redefine that country, and how millions in Latin America sloughed off decades of authoritarian incompetence and began to blossom. Never in human history have more people become more affluent more quickly than in the opening years of the 21st century.

They are not about to slink away in defeat. Having seen the possibility of a better life created by their own ingenuity and decisions, those billions are not about to collapse backward, anymore than equivalent millions in the United States and Europe in the 20th century did. Yes, collapse is always possible, and always will be. But enough with writing off a considerable portion of the planet because a few bankers in Washington might change how many bonds they purchase.

This article originally appeared on Reuters.com, a partner site.