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Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker — don’t believe the false doom-mongers
Towards the end of this passionate book in praise of Enlightenment values the author sounds a defiant but plaintive note. “Persuasion by facts and logic, the most direct strategy,” Steven Pinker writes, “is not always futile.” You can almost hear the “despites” in his mind. Despite the widespread belief among fashionable intellectuals that emotions and tribal loyalties are more important and somehow more authentic than fact-based evidence. Despite the steady stream of news reports (this week including another mass school shooting) suggesting that chaos is eroding the edifice of order.
It’s just as well that Pinker — among many other things a professor of psychology at Harvard — concludes that there is some point to logical persuasion, because he has spent several hundred pages using logical persuasion. He equips the reader with the information necessary to join in a defence of “the ideals of science, reason and humanism”, at a time when they seem to be under assault.
If Pinker is an optimist concerning human capacity for reason, it’s not because he is Professor Pollyanna. He begins the book by outlining the second law of thermodynamics — which is that “the laws of probability nudge the system towards disorder or uselessness”. It is usual, in other words, that things fall apart and the centre cannot hold, from space matter to humans beings. To make them cohere, to make them make something and keep making something, takes effort. It so happens that humanity has been adapted to make that effort. It could always choose, however, out of ennui, despair or error, to stop.
One source of all three malign motivations is the taste we have for pessimism. Pinker notes that recently Pulitzer non-fiction prizes were given to “four books on genocide, three on terrorism, two on cancer and one on extinction” and none for any one of the myriad efforts to tell stories of human achievement. This suits what he calls “progressophobes” like our trendy declinist John Gray, or the American intellectual Naomi Klein, whose visceral dislike of the idea of progress is in the essentially reactionary tradition of Romanticism, ie human beings were much more properly themselves in the days before vaccination and air travel.
A good half of the book — a refutation of such progressophoboia — is a factual examination of what humanity has achieved in the past couple of centuries. The chapter on the extraordinary (and to many counterintuitive) reduction in deaths from wars or violence will be familiar to those who have read Pinker’s 2011 book, The Better Angels of Our Nature. Much of the rest is new and is designed to establish that, for all the wailing, human existence has been measurably transformed for the better by, in Pinker’s words, “the virtuous cycle of education, knowledge and wealth”.
Pinker’s canvas is a panoramic one and this review by comparison is hardly a frame in a cartoon strip, but I just want to give a flavour of the granular fun to be had here. Because in building his case he has amassed a series of stats, examples and arguments that are as entertaining as they are important.
So here goes. A taste. On health, Pinker’s “favourite example in the history of the English language” is the Wikipedia entry on smallpox, which begins, “Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by one of two virus variants . . . ” There is no country in the world where infant or child mortality today is not lower than it was in 1950. The US rate of dementia is falling not rising and the average age at diagnosis rose from 80.7 to 82.4 between 2000 and 2012. The recent spike in death from opioids is not a horrible new phenomenon but, given that the main age of those overdosing is 50, it is “largely an epidemic of the druggy baby boomer cohort reaching middle age”.
Or on wealth. Inequality is not the great cause of social problems that authors such as Thomas Piketty suggest. From the facts “it’s not obvious that people are whipped into competitive anxiety by the existence of JK Rowling and Sergey Brin, as opposed to their own, local rivals for professional, romantic and social success”. Also as societies become richer they tend to get more munificent in supporting the less fortunate.
On the planet, environmentalists are right to be worried about global warming, but wrong about nuclear power, genetic modification and other advances which some reject out of an almost punitive desire for mankind to suffer. Also beware of false doomsters. Remember peak oil? Well actually in many cases we are using things much less than we used to, and by 2070 even the world’s population will be falling. In fact “we may have reached peak children, peak farmland, peak timber, peak paper and peak car. Indeed we may be reaching peak stuff.”
I very much liked the chapter on safety written because, in Pinker’s words, “humanity’s conquest of everyday danger is a peculiarly unappreciated form of progress”. Between 1921 and 2009 in the US there was an almost 24-fold fall in the road traffic death rate. And on homicide and crime, where Pinker reminds us that far from being all round us, murders tend to be concentrated in certain countries, in certain towns in those countries, in certain neighbourhoods in those towns, and that the policies to reduce such horrors are well-understood. On terrorism Pinker re-establishes the point that the Seventies and Eighties, for those of us in the West, was peak terror.
Pinker’s point is that, when we look at the facts, we know what works. Mixed capitalist economies operating in the framework of law and basing their policies on evidence, do much better for us than any other systems. It is better to trade than not, to mingle than not, to educate than not, to argue freely than not. The facts tell us so.
But sometimes we forget or quarrel ourselves into forgetting and say that the evidence doesn’t matter or that we prefer other more congenial evidence. And that, as Pinker makes clear in the final third of the book, is the danger he sees today. The victory of Trump and the (qualified) rise of populism, as well as the new fashion for “patronal authoritarianism” (Putin and Erdogan) and the “squirrely” lack of a defence of the Enlightenment by intellectuals, is presenting a challenge to the values that have kept entropy at bay and allowed humanity to progress.
Because progress is not regarded as heroic, but “is a kind that is easy to miss while we are living through it”, it is badly undersold. Pinker uses this book to resell it. He does a pretty good job. We want to hope his efforts are not futile.
Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress by Steven Pinker, Allen Lane, 556pp; £25
Reasons to be cheerful . . .
● In 1870 the average western European worked 66 hours a week; they now work 38 hours.
● Life expectancy in Kenya increased by ten years between 2003 and 2013, meaning the average Kenyan lived for a decade without losing a year of their remaining lifetime.
● Newspapers could truthfully have printed the headline “number of people in extreme poverty fell by 137,000 since yesterday” every day for the last 25 years.
● In 1919 an average American had to work 1,800 hours to pay for a refrigerator; in 2014 they had to work fewer than 24 hours (and their new fridge was frost-free and had an icemaker).
● Between 1820 and 1900 global income tripled. It has tripled three more times since.
178 Comments on "Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker — don’t believe the false doom-mongers"
Davy on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 7:15 am
life has givin me plenty of bitch slapins tardpaul. You are one of the most warped individuals on this board and the reason I don’t even read your shit. You need some meds man. I mean geez there is one thing to be mentally ill but another to be in denial of it and unmedicated.
GregT on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 7:48 am
“Fact” you have more guns than anyone on this board it is documented on this board”
In responsible hands, firearms are tools for hunting and self defence. In irresponsible hands, they are weapons of offence and warmongering. Your government has been using firearms irresponsibly around the globe for many decades Davy. This is about to come to end, voluntarily or not.
GregT on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 7:54 am
“I mean geez there is one thing to be mentally ill but another to be in denial of it and unmedicated.”
You are on record here as being un-medicated Davy, and if anybody here is mentally ill, and in a complete state of denial, that would be you. Crystal clear for all to see.
MASTERMIND on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 8:04 am
Greg
How has the US used firearms irresponsibly? You don’t even make sense..And your crusade against us is self serving. You religious fundamentalist are all the same..You always have to be hating something to make yourself feel like you are the “Good” one..You are a square ass judgmental prick. And you are outnumbered by a million to one. Once society collapses your home will be pumped full of holes and goons will rape your daughter till she bleeds for days…And I bet she will moan like a whore while it happens!
MASTERMIND on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 8:08 am
Davy
The reason Greg owns so many guns is he needs to feel powerful because he doesn’t feel strong intellectually. Just like all the other fundamentalist wacko’s..
Davy on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 8:12 am
Gun freak greggie you are not responsible and you see a therapist which indicates you likely have anger issues. The therapist is out of your own admission. It is documented on this board you are a gun freak. Anger issues don’t mix with guns. It is documented on this board you wanted to come down here to Missouri and screw with me. It is documented on this board you wanted to fuck me in the ass. Who is the mentally unstable. Oh, google brat find where it is documented that I am medicated or not. You are a lying piece of shit gun freak greggie. You want Americans like me dead. Go fuck youself wackjob. You might want to avoid in the future getting drunk and spilling the beans on the board. Stupid.
GregT on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 8:15 am
” If the US collapsed and many died it would satisfy your means to an end. This is clear from my 5 years of following your dumbass.”
I would prefer to see the empire go out with a whimper, with no more needless deaths, but I don’t see that happening. I see the empire going out with a bang. WW3 style.
GregT on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 8:17 am
“Once society collapses your home will be pumped full of holes and goons will rape your daughter till she bleeds for days…And I bet she will moan like a whore while it happens!”
This is exactly the type of attitude that the rest of the world has had enough of.
Davy on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 8:34 am
Then greggie why do you enable and associate with those who do? Your stupid response that you don’t control others and others have a right to an opinion does not work when stalking, pricking, and enabling. What it is is camouflage for the deeper hate you carry around. You associate with these extremist because you are one. You are like the rich respectable Saudis who bankrolled box cutting lunatic fanatics. The end justifies the means for you greggie. You are disgusting.
MASTERMIND on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 10:03 am
Recent Gallup poll shows the collapse in America’s global approval from 48% in 2016 to 30% today, just above Russia, slightly behind China and significantly trailing Germany (43%)
http://news.gallup.com/poll/225761/world-approval-leadership-drops-new-low.aspx
People around the world view China ahead of the US now? WTF?
GregT on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 11:12 am
“People around the world view China ahead of the US now? WTF?”
“Results are based on face-to-face and telephone interviews with approximately 1,000 adults, aged 15 and older, in each country or area.”
I’m sure it must have been difficult finding 1000 people dumb enough to even answer such a stupid question.
fmr-paultard on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 11:14 am
obviously the world doesn’t mind mobile execution vans. when the china firewall comes down there’ll be march on tiennamen square
if it’s not supertards style of democracy it’s unstable. china may as well going for a caliphate
not interested
fmr-paultard on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 11:19 am
in other words when supreme tard came back to seville, spane he was quickly arrested and after a lenghty debate with a priest, he gave up and left on his own.
people really don’t mind mobile execution vans because they want cheap stuff from china
again, not interested
GregT on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 11:30 am
“You are like the rich respectable Saudis who bankrolled box cutting lunatic fanatics.”
You actually believe in that BS? OK Einstein, then why did the “world’s policeman” invade Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria? Why is the focus still on Iran, the Saudi’s sworn enemy, and why are U.S. administrators still kissing Saudi royal ass?
Without a doubt, you’re as dumb as they come.
Anonymouse1 on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 11:48 am
When one goes stark raving mad, a lot of other things tend to go with it. Reality, becomes, whatever the voices in his head are telling the exceptionalist it is. This is a textbook case of why amerikan mass-propaganda, facile as it is, is so readily absorbed by its serf-citizens. You have to be insane, and or stupid, to accept it at face value.
Looks like its working as intended, right dumbass?
Might want to check under your bed for saudis with utility knives before you go to sleep, dumbass. And Filipinos too, (to be extra safe). If you even sleep anymore that is.
Davy on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 12:37 pm
“Without a doubt, you’re as dumb as they come.”
Sure jew baiting conspiracy addict. Talk to your cousin the weasel he is the master of jew baiting conspiracy fantasy. You two stupid Canadian circle jerkers can get off on each other.
GregT on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 1:01 pm
Jew baiting? I had to look that one up:
jew baiting
(n) The act of driving through a predominately Jewish neighborhood during the Jewish Sabbath while having either the driver or passenger wave a dollar bill out of the window in the hope of baiting a jew to grab it.
(v) To jew bait someone is to flaunt something of minimal value (i.e. dollar bill, change, plastic toy) in front of them
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=jew%20baiting
You are one seriously messed up individual Davy, hopeless.
MASTERMIND on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 1:45 pm
Greg
Why do you a line with that Nazi holocost denier clogg? You say you hate America for all the wrongs it makes. Then you just on Hitler bandwagon? You make no sense..And you post no links to anything interesting ever..You just chime it to correct people on petty grammar.
Anonymouse1 on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 1:59 pm
It’s, ALIGN, dumbass. Not ‘a line’. Yes, greg is nothing but big mean, petty grammar nazi, isn’t he?
Dumbass.
Davy on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 2:02 pm
You are dumb as a box of rocks gun freak greggie. It’s an expression but your too stupid to catch on so you look it up. Lol.
GregT on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 2:29 pm
“It’s an expression but your too stupid to catch on so you look it up.”
That would be you’re too stupid Davy.
What’s the difference between your and you’re? Your presence on this page means you’re about to find out.
Your is the second person possessive adjective, used to describe something as belonging to you. Your is always followed by a noun or gerund.
What is your name?
Is this your pen?
Your book is on the table.
This is your chair and this is mine.
What happened to your dog?
You’re is the contraction of “you are” and is often followed by the present participle (verb form ending in -ing).
You’re going to be late.
Is that what you’re wearing?
I think you’re lying.
Come on buddy, it’s basic grade school stuff for God’s sake.
GregT on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 2:30 pm
http://www.elearnenglishlanguage.com/blog/english-mistakes/your-vs-youre/
GregT on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 2:41 pm
“It’s an expression but your too stupid to catch on so you look it up.”
It isn’t an expression that I was familiar with. Now that I’ve looked it up, I understand what it means.
jew baiting
(n) The act of driving through a predominately Jewish neighborhood during the Jewish Sabbath while having either the driver or passenger wave a dollar bill out of the window in the hope of baiting a jew to grab it.
(v) To jew bait someone is to flaunt something of minimal value (i.e. dollar bill, change, plastic toy) in front of them
Personally, I think that you’re one sick dude.
MASTERMIND on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 2:58 pm
Jew Baiting sounds sooo funny….LOL
Davy on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 3:00 pm
I am so friggen smart aah I am dumb. LMFAO. What else can I say to get the two dumbass Canadians to waste time stalking and pricking. Whoo, no wonder your country is so irrelevant.
MASTERMIND on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 3:01 pm
Greg
People who correct your typos are probably jerks, according this Peer reviewed study
According to a new study from the University of Michigan, that grammar-Nazi quality may actually be a pretty good proxy for a person’s level of agreeableness overall.
http://www.businessinsider.com/people-who-correct-typos-may-be-jerks-study-finds-2016-3
MASTERMIND on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 3:05 pm
Greg
From that Michigan Study on Grammar Nazi’s
The least open-minded people, in other words, were the ones who stood out as the grammar police.
So typo-obsessed people beware: Your actions do speak louder than words.
MASTERMIND on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 3:42 pm
Is the global economy facing a financial armageddon?
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/business/350776/is-the-global-economy-facing-a-financial-armageddon
GregT on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 3:43 pm
“According to a new study from the University of Michigan, that grammar-Nazi quality may actually be a pretty good proxy for a person’s level of agreeableness overall.”
University of Michigan? That’s hilarious. Sounds more like a feeble excuse for illiteracy to me.
GregT on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 3:45 pm
“Jew Baiting sounds sooo funny….LOL”
Sounds really sick to me. I’m not at all surprised that Davy knew what it meant.
Anonymouse1 on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 3:51 pm
According to a new study by the University of Floriduhmass people who spell align, as ‘a line’, are fairly stupid. And probably sock puppets. Thinking ‘a line’ is the same ‘align’, may actually be a pretty good proxy for the dumbass’s level of intelligence overall.
Davy on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 3:54 pm
Being a closet Nazi is sick, greggie. That is just another dirty badge of hate for you to wear with disrespect.
GregT on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 3:55 pm
Another good find MM. You’re really on a roll…….
“Is the global economy facing a financial armageddon?”
“John Adams sees the massive sell-off of global stocks in early February, which saw American markets plunge 10 percent from recent highs, as the harbinger of an economic death spiral, eventually bringing about soaring interest rates, a collapse in share and house prices, higher unemployment and widespread bankruptcies.”
“Others are sceptical, however, arguing the doom and gloom was overblown.”
“The people who are saying these things are the same people who were saying that the global financial crisis was the end of the world, and who fairly regularly predict that really bad times are just around the corner,” Simplicity managing director Sam Stubbs said.”
“And additionally if things did go really wrong we’ve got a lot of fiscal flexibility because our government books are in pretty good order and we’ve got a lot of central bank flexibility ’cause we’ve still got some of the highest interest rates on the planet and we’ve never used quantitative easing.”
It’s no wonder that New Zealand has been identified as one of the better places to weather out the coming financial storm.
Davy on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 3:57 pm
The stupid weasel is chasing his tail growing and barking. LMFAO. No wonder you couldn’t cut it as an engineer. What a dork. You and greggie are a perfect match.
GregT on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 3:59 pm
“Being a closet Nazi is sick, greggie.”
I have no political affiliation Davy, I don’t believe in top down control. It always leads to corruption.
GregT on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 4:03 pm
“The stupid weasel is chasing his tail growing and barking.”
Weasels aren’t normally prone to growing and barking Davy. Whatever that means.
Must have lost something in the translation to English.
Davy on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 4:03 pm
Greggie, I bet your pathologist wife would be upset if she knew how much of the day you piss away stalking and pricking. I bet she is the one that pushed you into therapy. Greggie, do you obsessively wash your hands?
GregT on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 4:13 pm
I’ve already completed my honey-do list for the day Davy. How about you? All married men have one.
fmr-paultard on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 4:15 pm
supertard that is not me. it’s some impostor attacking you. i said many timesbefore supetards are beyond reproach
fmr-paultard on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 5:25 pm
possibiliyt exits eurotard masquerate as myself then post and answer it as supertard
Anonymouse1 on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 5:32 pm
What is with this ‘engineer’ business, dumbass? We all know you have multiple fixations and obsessions, few, if any, grounded in either fact or reality. So, bring me up to speed on the engineer thing, dumbass.
makati1 on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 5:46 pm
Guys, Davy/MM are lost causes. If brainwashing was a visible red color on their faces, theirs would be flashing bright neon red all over. Perfect examples of the typical American these days. That is why there will be little loss when the US goes down. Nothing there to lose. Greedy, warmongering, uneducated, drugged up snowflakes. Just collateral damage as far as TPTB are concerned.
I agree with you Greg, that the US should go out with a whimper. But, like you, I think it will be WW3 on their home ground, the Lower 48 plus 2. Most of their antimissile systems are antique and even their new ones are less than 50% successful. Not looking good for the “exceptional/indispensable” bully.
MASTERMIND on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 5:52 pm
Madkat
We ain’t going down without a fight! Live free or die!
Good Luck! You will see who the snowflakes are!
GregT on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 6:05 pm
“According to a new study from the University of Michigan, that grammar-Nazi quality may actually be a pretty good proxy for a person’s level of agreeableness overall.”
I simply cannot stop laughing over this one. I mean what next? An American university study about people who point out basic grade school arithmetic errors? Like 1+1=3?
LMFAO!
GregT on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 6:08 pm
“We ain’t going down without a fight! Live free or die!”
Live by the sword, die by the sword. It isn’t exactly rocket science MM.
makati1 on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 6:12 pm
MM, there is no one left in Amerika able to “fight” except the gangs. Last study showed that less than 25% of military age males would be able to do basic grunt work. Too many drugs, obesity and stupidity.
The US is already going down. It is just a question of the end point and how it will be finished off. Financially? Militarily? Civil War? Or all three? Time will tell.
GregT on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 6:41 pm
Hey look, it’s a mediocracy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VgIztMRdE4
MASTERMIND on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 6:45 pm
Greg
There is a big difference for making grammar errors and math errors. That study nailed you..Personally I dont care to take the effort to fact check everything I type. And that is because I am not under my real name and not talking to anyone I personally know..
makati1 on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 6:48 pm
Why do I get an echo of Davy in Muddymind’s uneducated comments? Split personality? Twin? Inbred cousin? LOL
GregT on Mon, 19th Feb 2018 7:17 pm
“There is a big difference for making grammar errors and math errors.”
Rially MM?