With my interest in meditation, you might think a book called Enlightenment Now would have something to do with meditation. It doesn’t.
The title refers to the cultural movement between 1685 and 1815 (also referred to as “the age of reason”) when the current norms and institutions of reason, science, and humanism were largely adopted by the West. The author, Steven Pinker, argues that these ideas and principles have resulted in spectacular improvement in the overall well-being of humans, but that this progress is not appreciated by most today. The book offers a kind of reverse reality check (if such a thing exists – if not I just made it up) where he suggests we stop and realize just how good things are. Along with that, he presents a vigorous defense of science, humanism, rational thought and reason as guiding principles for making the world an even better place, and for solving the problems we face.
The book analyzes dozens of measures of the human condition, from life expectancy and literacy to poverty, income, crime rates, retirement age, and causes of death. In every measure of what he calls “human flourishing,” the trend is (SPOILER ALERT) hugely positive, and in most cases shows amazing improvement. Taking what I would call a very radical position, he argues that we humans are in the best condition in which we have ever been. Furthermore, he demonstrates that the systems of liberal democracy which got us here are not only capable of solving the problems that still face humanity and the planet, but they are doing so largely in spite of the fact that we sit around complaining about them and thinking they aren’t working.
“The world has made spectacular progress in every single measure of human well-being…”
Contrary to what looking at the headlines had led me to believe, I came away from reading the book confident that:
- People are NOT getting poorer, hungrier, and more disadvantaged
- Democracy is not on the decline, and has not been proven a failure
- The world is NOT doomed by human mismanagement and headed for certain disaster
- We are NOT at a new low as a human culture
Even more shocking than the fact that we are not in a free fall is the compelling evidence presented that shows we are doing better than ever before in so many ways you can’t even count them. The author summarizes this by noting that “the world has made spectacular progress in every single measure of human well-being…” but “…almost nobody knows about it.”
Looking at the numbers and graphs he presents, you might wonder why the news is so negative. What’s more, it isn’t just one side of the political aisle with this opinion. I find it ironic that in some ways the only thing the two sides agree upon is that everything is a disaster. This bleak and yet somehow very popular assessment is what the author aims to disprove, calling it “wrong, wrong, flat-earth wrong.” He gives a number of possible explanations for why we think things are so bad. One compelling reason involves something sociologists call the “heuristic of availability.” This refers to the human mind’s habit of over-attributing specific experience in our evaluation of the world. For example, if it rains for three days straight in Los Angeles, I might (falsely) start thinking that this is the wettest October on record. In the same way, if I see nothing on the local newscast but stories of carjackings and armed robberies, I might (falsely) assume that Los Angeles is more dangerous than ever.
This means when we see bad news, we tend think it is more widespread than it is. Naturally that begs a related question – why do we see so much bad news? The reason for that comes down to evolutionary psychology. We have a bias toward fear and negativity because it has been helpful for survival. To oversimplify things, a hunter gatherer would suffer anxiety but no real harm if they mistook a rock for a crouching lion, but if they mistook a crouching lion for a rock, they usually didn’t end up passing on their genes. This fear bias means, in a sense, that we are hard-wired to be anxious. It also means that we are naturally over-critical and pessimistic.
Another interesting thing the author presents, which can play a part in feelings that the world is falling apart, is a phenomenon researchers call the “Optimism Gap.” This refers to people’s underestimation of others’ well-being, and to the state of affairs of the larger groups and culture to which they belong, as compared to their own levels. For example, people say that poverty and vandalism are big problems in their city, but not in their particular neighborhood. Or they say crime and homelessness are very big problems in the state, but not in their particular city. Likewise they might say that unemployment is getting worse, but not among people they know, or that people are more and more unhappy, but not so in their family. Shockingly, it seems this happens across all cultures studied. One study showed that people underestimate the happiness of those around them by a staggering 42% on average!
So we pay more attention to the negative than the positive, we are intrigued by it, we are drawn to it, and we even overestimate it. In a market economy, that translates into news that serves up more of it. To this point, Pinker notes that “we never see a journalist saying to the camera, “I’m reporting live from a country where a war has not broken out”—or a city that has not been bombed, or a school that has not been shot up. As long as bad things have not vanished from the face of the earth, there will always be enough incidents to fill the news, especially when billions of smartphones turn most of the world’s population into crime reporters and war correspondents.”
We never see a journalist saying to the camera, “I’m reporting live from a country where a war has not broken out”
When you combine our negativity bias, this 24-hour global news cycle, and humans’ poor ability to estimate, it is easy to see how people think everything is bad. In my experience, when discussing world news with friends and colleagues, I am shocked at how the tone is purely negative – problems are everywhere, nothing is going right, and things are generally worse than ever. My response would be sure, unless you consider things like poverty, hunger, disease, life expectancy, infant mortality, health, income, or safety in our own country, the third world, or the entire planet.
But beyond the depressing reality that we think things are much worse than they are, is there any real danger with this overly negative view? The author argues yes. If we think our institutions are failing us, and that things are going from bad to worse, we give up on them. When we think society is failing us, we start having movements where the people give up on it all – they check out and decide that it’s better to just let it burn.
Does this mean there are no problems? Absolutely not. We have troubling trends and patterns, like how the US trails other industrialized countries in many areas. And we have bigger challenges like climate change. But looking at the big picture, and viewing our challenges through a more historical lens gives us is some perspective, and in my opinion that’s really important. Walking around with a cynical, angry, pessimistic worldview doesn’t help us enjoy life, nor does it help us focus our efforts where they can do the most good. When we believe the popular hype that the world is a nightmare, we can internalize it and become scared, angry, and hateful. And this can happen based on wrong perceptions.
So if you share the widespread view that the earth and humanity are going to hell in a handbasket, you might check out this book. I found it uplifting and a big relief! If you have to be wrong about something, what could be better than discovering that your pessimism and cynicism about the world today may be unfounded?
