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Something strange has happened to the modern mind. By almost every objective measure, human beings are living longer, healthier, safer, richer, freer, and more peaceful lives than at any point in history. Yet ask the average person whether the world is getting better or worse, and they will almost certainly say worse. This is not an accident. It is a cognitive illusion, one that distorts our politics, our media, and our sense of what is possible.
**Author:** Steven Pinker **Estimated Reading Time:** 55 minutes
### What You'll Learn
You will discover why almost every measure of human well-being has improved dramatically over the past two centuries. You will understand why the news makes the world seem worse than it is. You will learn how the ideals of the Enlightenment, reason, science, and humanism, have driven this progress. And you will see why defending these ideals matters more than ever in an age of pessimism, populism, and apocalyptic thinking.
### Who This Book Is For
This book is for anyone who feels overwhelmed by negative headlines and wonders if the world is falling apart. It is for the person who suspects things might actually be getting better but lacks the data to back up that intuition. It is for the student who wants to understand the forces that shaped the modern world. And it is for the skeptic who believes that progress is a myth sold by the powerful. If you have ever felt hopeless about the future, this book will give you a new lens through which to see reality.
Something strange has happened to the modern mind. By almost every objective measure, human beings are living longer, healthier, safer, richer, freer, and more peaceful lives than at any point in history. Yet ask the average person whether the world is getting better or worse, and they will almost certainly say worse. This is not an accident. It is a cognitive illusion, one that distorts our politics, our media, and our sense of what is possible. Steven Pinker wrote Enlightenment Now to correct that illusion. He did not write it to argue that everything is perfect. He wrote it to show that the Enlightenment project, the application of reason, science, and humanism to human affairs, has worked. It has worked so well that we have come to take its achievements for granted. We have forgotten what life was like before modern medicine, before democratic governance, before the dramatic decline of violence, before the global reduction of poverty. And because we have forgotten, we have become vulnerable to demagogues who tell us that everything is broken and that the only solution is to burn it all down. The problem Pinker addresses is not just ignorance of history. It is a systematic bias in how we perceive the world. The news media, by its nature, reports on things that go wrong. A plane that lands safely is not a story. A plane that crashes is. This creates a distorted picture of reality, one in which disasters, crimes, and conflicts seem to be the norm rather than the exception. Our own psychology compounds the problem. We are wired to…
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Get the complete summary in the appThe world is getting better, not worse, by almost every objective measure of human well-being.
The Enlightenment ideals of reason, science, humanism, and progress are the cause of this improvement.
Extreme poverty has fallen from over 90 percent to under 10 percent of the global population.
Life expectancy has more than doubled in the past two centuries.
Violence, including war and homicide, has declined dramatically over the long term.
The news systematically distorts reality by focusing on negative events.
"Enlightenment Now" is a strong fit if you want practical ideas around culture, history, politics—especially themes like the world is getting better, not worse, by almost every objective measure of human well-being; the enlightenment ideals of reason, science, humanism, and progress are the cause of this improvement. The MinuteRead summary distills these concepts into a focused read, whether you're deciding whether to buy the book or applying its lessons at work.
Motivated to help readers with something strange has happened to the modern mind. By almost every objective measure, Steven Pinker wrote “Enlightenment Now” to package those ideas for a fast, focused read. In “Enlightenment Now”, Steven Pinker focuses on something strange has happened to the modern mind. By almost every objective measure. Through “Enlightenment Now”, Steven Pinker distills the core ideas on history into lessons readers can absorb in a single short sitting. Readers turn to this w…
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