The Resurgence of Liberal Optimism Part 2

Last week I discussed the impact of the liberal optimism rooted in American history. In that column I examined this phenomenon from the perspective of a progressive Christian. I turn this week to another aspect of a cultural optimism that these days may be downplayed with the debilitating loss of confidence in our institutions, and in our current unease as a morally vacant egomaniac is in charge of the nation. Even facing these realities head-on, there lies buried in our recent history a compelling positive perspective to which I now turn. (side note: By the way, it is not the US that “the squad” and so many others despise—it is a racist tyrant who claims that to despise him is to hate America)

A major advocate of this cultural optimism is Steven Pinker, a social psychologist who is a distinguished professor at Harvard. Pinker has highlighted the framework of this undervalued dynamic in his recent book, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress (New York, Viking 2018). Pinker lists a number of areas showing the marked improvement in the living conditions of the world’s people.

Here are a few of the findings from the World Health Organization, comparing past conditions with the current reality. Where have we been, and where are we now.

· Life expectancy of the world’s people in years : 1770—38 1900 —47 1950—60 2015—78 and rising every year. In the developed world it is now well over 80.

· Child mortality (percentage of deaths among children under 5 yrs): 1770 --30% 1900—22% 1950—17% 2015—.02%

· Maternal mortality: 1770—1%; 1900— 07%; 1950—.03%; 2015--.01%.

· Health: a steady dramatic rise every year in the levels of general positive health (excluding the years of the flu epidemic.)

· Nourishment: percentage of the world’s chronically malnourished: 1970—35% 2015—14%

· Wealth seen in per capita GNP: 1850—$2,000 2015—$13,000.

· Extreme poverty: numbers have declined every decade since results were compiled.

· War by the world ‘s powerful nations: a steady dramatic decline every century since 1500

The above are only samples of Pinker’s mammoth compendium of ways in which the world’s people are wealthier, healthier, better fed, safer, less violent and more secure

than at any time in modern history. Does this testimony to human progress prove that “every day in every way things are getting better and better,” or is it simply indicative, as Pinker suggests, of the power of science on one hand, and the intellectual vision flowing from the Enlightenment on the other? Certainly there is no guarantee that the escalator producing so many human benefits is about to run its course.

In a later chapter Pinker reminds his readers of what he calls, “the existential threats” always hibernating just below the horizon. There is the constant threat of some overpowering natural cataclysm. The dinosaurs must have prided themselves on their good fortune, while somewhere in space a very large rock was hurtling in their direction. Then there is always the shadow cast by the stockpiles of nuclear weapons as well as the increasing threat to the continued viability of the planet as we continue our headlong flight into an environmental dead-end and the persistent approach of the fail-safe day when the ability of the earth to recover no longer exists. And this, the devastating end-product of a bull-headedness that insists that no such threat exists, no matter what science tells us about climate change.

To that list of warnings Pinker adds one more. He calls it “authoritarian populism” in which a rhetorically strong albeit ignorant chauvinist leader establishes a tribalism that pushes back every vestige of common sense, ridicules the clear indications of science, fumes against the wisdom born in the Enlightenment and glorifies nationalism at the expense of the survival of the world’s people. So added to the other existential risks is the fate of a good people whose future may be sold cheaply to a snake-oil salesman.

At the same time, A recovery of a liberal optimism may be seen in the work of other thoughtful politicians, scientists, authors and academics whose vision and wisdom image a positive future despite any current darkness. A new optimistic day may be at hand!