The Optimism We Overlook: Steven Pinker’s Findings on the World's Quiet Advancements

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

I was born the cynical daughter to a cynical father. Despite our seemingly never-ending disagreements, the tragic state of the world was a common opinion between us. However, as I grew older and even more disagreeable, I turned a cheek of unexpected optimism in line with the findings of Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker. Pinker, a true contrarian, believes that the world, while troubled, is not abnormal; instead, the world is improving, as hard as it may be to believe.

In his latest book, Enlightenment Now, Pinker explores and provides proof that the world has improved in many aspects over the past century. He shows, among other things, that car crashes, births, and crime-related fatalities have decreased, global quality of life has improved, and access to better health, education, and general human rights has increased.

For example, Pinker writes, "An American in 2015, compared with their counterpart half a century earlier, will live nine years longer, have had three more years of education, earn an additional $33,000 a year per family member…and have an additional eight hours a week of leisure," Still, we fail to appreciate or even acknowledge these undeniable improvements. Instead, society takes to their phones to "bitch, moan, whine, carp, and kvetch as much as ever."

Why do we bitch and moan despite this progress? Perhaps our all-round gloomy outlook can be chalked up to our general unawareness of such advancement. Mainstream media is simply more likely to run a negative story than a positive one (the term "if it bleeds, it leads" comes to mind). Pinker explains that despite our improving world, pockets of dissatisfaction (areas with crime and war, for example) remain and, as such, occupy disproportionate media space. Let it be clear that this space is warranted and that crises deserve our attention and support. However, its being in the media creates a warped and pessimistic perspective of our state.

Put simply, buried deep beneath the ostensibly flawed and failing planet we want to call home, beneath the news of poverty, politics, and war, the world is not as bad as we thought, and that fact alone sparks hope in a once young and despairing girl.

In the words of Pinker, "I can present this optimistic vision without blushing because it is not a naïve reverie or sunny aspiration... it's the view of the future that is most grounded in historical reality, the one with the cold, hard facts on its side."

Brooke Anderson