by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist (read the original in Noozhawk by clicking here)

I’m not sure what to make of Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.

The book is a cognitive scientist’s perspective on how we view ourselves. Pinker examines a wide body of research including recent studies showing a majority of the population in all large countries except China believes the world is getting worse rather than better.

“This bleak assessment of the state of the world is wrong, wrong, flat-earth wrong,” Pinker is quoted in a New Yorker article by Joshua Rothman. It has affected our politics, encouraging voters to elect unproved leaders “with a dark vision of the current moment.”

Pinker presents evidence of improved quality of life across wide ranging areas. According to his meta-research, the past few decades have shown significant improvement around the world including:

» Health care has improved and infant and maternal mortality reduced.

» Children are better fed, educated, and less abused.

» Workers earn more money, are injured less frequently, and retire earlier.

» The world is less polluted, with more parks and protected wilderness, and carbon intensity (carbon/GDP) is falling almost everywhere.

» Hate crimes in the U.S. have been falling for decades. Internet searches indicate fewer racist, sexist, homophobic attitudes.

Objectively, It would be hard to disagree that daily life is better for the vast majority than, say, half a century ago. Nevertheless, I agree with the majority that it doesn’t feel like a great time to be alive. Progress made seems like progress waylaid. For instance,

» U.S. maternal mortality is the worst in the developed world.
» U.S. seniors declaring bankruptcy has increased fivefold since 1991.
» California has reached our strict emissions standards four years early, but the federal administration seems bent on stripping this right to clean air.
» The “me too” is making it harder to get away with blatant abuse, but actions by this administration demonstrate and support an unparalleled misogyny, racism, and xenophobia.

Pinker believes the source of the disconnect between living in an improving society and feeling worse about it is the media. Journalism has grown substantially more negative, he writes, and the power of bad news is magnified.

Building on statistics from German economist Max Roser, Pinker argues that a truly evenhanded newspaper “could have run the headline NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN EXTREME POVERTY FELL BY 137,000 SINCE YESTERDAY every day for the last 25 years.”

Rothman’s challenge inspired me to review my Noozhawk columns over the years to determine whether I’m part of the media problem or solution.

I randomly selected a third of my nearly 300 columns and found my overall pessimism percentage to be 22 percent. That clearly makes me an optimist, if not an actual Pollyanna.

I am an optimist in pessimistic times. I believe we’re on a bumpy ride with an upwards trajectory toward “better.” But I am not convinced that we are getting better at a rate that will avoid potential human-caused catastrophic events.

Among those potential catastrophes I count nuclear, biological, or chemical warfare, climate change, and the dark side of artificial intelligence.

It’s tempting to believe these issues are too big for any of us as individuals to address. But our duty, as citizens of a democracy, is to stay informed with facts and vote every election.

It is necessary for a healthy democracy and good for our conscience. It can also keep us optimistic about our future.

Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist

Karen Telleen-Lawton is an eco-writer, sharing information and insights about economics and ecology, finances and the environment. Having recently retired from financial planning and advising, she spends more time exploring the outdoors — and reading and writing about it. The opinions expressed are her own.More by Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist