ENLIGHTENMENT NOW by STEVEN PINKER

 Steven Pinker has written several books, but my reading Enlightenment Now has been my first. In the current world, I admit that I am mostly aware of our national and, even international, dichotomy. Our political environment appears so distraught that we cannot seem to agree on virtually anything. At the moment, gun rights is dominating the news, given the recent murders of school children in Texas. And as the news focuses on the present, they quickly bring to mind all the similar murders especially since Sandy Hook. It would be easy to identify other similar problems that we cannot agree with. As the nation awaits the Supreme Court’s decision regarding Roe v. Wade, it is unlikely there will be anything resembling an unanimous verdict. While unanimous verdicts may appear rare, they are not. According to Politifact, since 2008, unanimous decisions accounted for the plurality of rulings

Enlightenment Now has refocused my perspective so that I can discuss issues that beg for improvement without sinking into depression. 

Pinker zeroes in on essential elements of our world: Life, Health, Sustenance, Wealth, Inequality, the Environment, Peace, Safety,Terrorism, Democracy, Equal Rights, Knowledge, Quality of Life, Happiness, Existential Threats, and the Future of Progress. In each issue, he details the history and the current situation. While acknowledging the differences, his data clearly captures that there is constant progress. 

The long and short of his work is that we may still have work to do, but we should treasure the work already done that has made life so much better for so many. 

Surely, I am totally aware of my good fortune. To think that I was born into a family with little education. In the case of my mother, there was none. A woman born in Ireland in poverty was a road to despair. To think that I not only had a good public school education, but a total of 15 years of higher education. I live with a wife who became a nurse with a three year hospital program, but then went on to get a BS degree and then a Master’s Degree to become a significant nurse practitioner. And then, we had three children who achieved doctorates (one in medicine and two in law).

We have therefore reason to experienced a world that enabled such progress. It is good to focus on this, especially at times when the news captures so many negative events.