Enlightenment now

The follow-up to Pinker's groundbreaking "The Better Angels of Our Nature" presents the big picture of human progress: people are living longer healthier freer and happier lives and while our problems are formidable the solutions lie in the Enlightenment ideal of using reason and science. Far from being a naïve hope the Enlightenment we now know has worked. But more than ever it needs a vigorous defense. The Enlightenment project swims against currents of human nature--tribalism authoritarianism demonization magical thinking--which demagogues are all too willing to exploit. Many commentators committed to political religious or romantic ideologies fight a rearguard action against it. The result is a corrosive fatalism and a willingness to wreck the precious institutions of liberal democracy and global cooperation.