Scales

I wish that I could see the scales that measure each centuries worth and determine just what it takes to cause their rise and fall. Is it wasted lives versus those fulfilled? Is is senseless bloodshed opposed to those that survived? Is it the level of justice that prevailed in a hundred years? Can one or two persons of zealous charity balance the rest of us? Does the blood of principled martyrs count for much in the mix? I look at America's last century and wonder of it's relative worth.