Friend and classmate John Stossel makes an optimistic pitch that 2020 wasn’t as bad as it has been made out to be and provides solid reasons why. Seeing this might provide a spring board for a greater sense of optimism about the current state of affairs and what we have to look forward to: [sic]I replied to all recipients with this:
Kathy and I loved this piece. Thanks. It’s a breath of fresh air, especially given the irrational pessimism being generated in Washington.
Unfortunately, President Biden and his supporters in the media and academia are painting an irrationally pessimistic picture, for political/ideological reasons. They are intent on creating an illusion of widespread crises. In fact, the very theme of President Biden’s inauguration speech was “The cascading crises of our era”--his words, not mine, and a false sentiment that will define his Administration.
We both love Stossel. People desperately need to learn the truth of the state of America and the world, before the progress gets reversed in the name of “fixing” an imagined “cascade of crises.” [Jonah] Norberg is great, and I have his new book on my buy list. The world is in the best shape its ever been in, at least from the standard of human flourishing and well-being. But he’s far from alone. Aside from Norberg, other scholars offer plenty of fact-based documentation for the amazingly good state of the world, including Ten Global Trends Every Smart Person Should Know: And Many Others You Will Find Interesting by Ronald Bailey and Marian L. Tupy, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress by Steven Pinker, and The Great Enrichment by Deirdre McCloskey. None try to soft pedal problems that humankind still faces, nor should any of us. But all offer context and balance to counter the disaster-mongers. Or you can simply open your eyes and mind and look around.
I did not get any response.
Related Reading:
The planet has never been a safer place for humans to live—Alex Epstein for MarketWatch
The End of Doom: Environmental Renewal in the 21st Century—Ronald Bailey
The Myth of Technological Unemployment: If the nightmare of technological unemployment were true, it would already have happened, repeatedly and massively, by Deirdre Nansen McCloskey.
Related Viewing:
Individualism vs Collectivism - Dr. Yaron Brook
1 comment:
Boy, you're so right, modern progress is under-appreciated.
China has lifted more people 800 million of its citizens out of poverty in the last 40 years or so.
It would be great if the US government could spur things like that, rather than always rigging everything to further benefit the people who are already affluent. In the name of "LiB-BerTY" or whatever they're calling selfishness these days.
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