Enlightenment Now

Pinker proves himself to be a well articulated and brilliant thinker, it was refreshing to read a popular science book, written by an academic that didn't descend into self indulgent intellectual prose, content or vocabulary, in fact Pinker seems to oppose such behaviour as he critiques the hubristic intellectual elite (mainly in America) that act as experts but fail to explain their domains with lucidity. It felt like I'd met a kindred spirit, as I was reminded on the frustrating experience of going through university and having to read academic papers (from the sciences and humanities) that were written poorly and seemed to be self congratulatory on how complicated their subject matter was. Pinker does a good job in substantiating the perspective that the world has improved much more than people think, but it at times feels a little one sided as we are shown a slew of graphs and stats that only assist his argument. The last three chapters were my favourite. Pinkers commentary on the intellectual left and populist right are clear and insightful and he gives us reason to believe in the merit of ideas and values that materialised in the enlightenment. He also gives a refreshing perspective on opposing the trite romanticism that attempts to overthrow reason and constructive progress by appealing to emotion and calling on the ‘dire need' for the human spirit to over throw the shackles of modernity. I've definitely fallen prey to this way of thinking, attracted to the self righteous, artificial profundity bereft of originality which only really stirs the brewing shitpot of passionate, illogical opinion. That being said, Pinker is not some science-will-fix-all rationalist that curb stomps the arts, he celebrates painters, writers and celebrates the human spirit as a humanist. This is why I think he is a brilliant thinker, he can write well, provides a balanced argument and gives good reason to believe that our belief systems inherited from the enlightenment are (and continue to be) worth keeping.