Enlightenment Now... | Steven Pinker | Talks at Google
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ค. 2019
- If you think the world is coming to an end, think again. People are living longer, healthier, freer, and happier lives, and while our problems are formidable, Steven Pinker believes the solutions lie in the Enlightenment ideal of using reason and science.
Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data: in seventy-five jaw-dropping graphs, Pinker will demonstrate that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West, but worldwide. This progress is not the result of some cosmic force, it is a gift of the Enlightenment: the conviction that reason and science can enhance human flourishing.
But now, more than ever, Enlightenment principles require vigorous defense.
With intellectual depth and literary flair, Enlightenment Now makes the case for reason, science, and humanism: the ideals we need to confront our problems and continue our progress.
Find your copy of Steven's book: goo.gle/2RPrfxZ
I find it charming and comforting that a person capable of such brilliance makes PowerPoint look just as shitty as everyone else.
@@EngForArabs no way, he's not a catholic priest
@@EngForArabs k...
HAHAHAHAHA Great comment loll
After previewing his PowerPoint, maybe that's why the intern at Google decided to give him such a crappy microphone, and overhead light him with circus lights!
i'd guess he's actually put a lot of thought into presentation methodology and might feel vanilla powerpoint style presents information in an adequately absorbable and concise way. he probably values the information much more than the presentation. though, a master powerpointer can make quite an impression, even if the information itself is not as high quality.
One of the most vital aspects of progress ( not really mentioned in this wonderful speech ) is from musician Frank Zappa: " Without deviation from the norm, progress is NOT possible. " Things around us are indeed slowly improving. But, make no mistake: There ARE people who are making headway into a better way of life for all of us. And, there are just as many people who DO NOT want deviation from the norm. So, thanks to Mr. Pinker, progress is possible and life WILL continue to get better.
You would not believe the hostility Pinker generates. He's a "corporate stooge" "justifying neoliberalism" etc. People just don't want to hear what he says. Then they go to bed in their central heating and A/C controlled apartment with a fridge full of food.
The human mind is its own worst enemy and can make ANYTHING a negative trend.
Pinker is just showing you the results, dont thank him thank yourself and the people of this planet! This is a wonderful time we are living in, and it's only going to get better ❤
Another reason why these progresses are not mainstream celebrated and reported is because there are a lot of people in the western world for which these statistics are undermining their agenda.
they don't have to be mainstream to screw things up. In fact, it has been shown that most progressive policies have been pushed by a relatively small number of loud, but vocal activists in combination with the spiral of silence.
@@BenGlasser79 Trump capitalized on fear to get elected. Right-wing fear. All this talk of the left, left, left when the entire Western world is in much more danger of shifting to the far right. It's like you're projecting...
@@squamish4244 go look at some of the interviews of Trump talking politics in the 80's when he was a democrat. He was saying the same things. If anything Trump was the most liberal republican president ever elected. As they say, he didn't leave the left, the left left him.
Ironically, your fears of becoming ruled by an intolerant, totalitarian government are justified by the illiberal policies being proposed by radical leftists.
@@BenGlasser79 Same shit, different day. The guy got his people to storm the fucking Capitol and you STILL think his shit is gold. Jesus Christ.
seeing this during the corona virus pandemic has given me so much hope...
The pandemic was a man made problem and the solution of shutting down the world was even a bigger man made problem
@@agelement4740 false. Take your outrageous conspiracy theory to parler.
@@samarittan9308 conspiracy now proven true, Fauci and co involved in all sorts of sordid business, liberal delusions of "rationality" long exposed as just a faith, a new religion complete with original sin and apocalyptic prophecy. These are just new corrupt priests of what darwin would judge as a maladaptive religion, aka a cult.
Excellent snap shot of the world where it stands now to then based on reason &empirical evidence.It is a must watch for all those who knows English. I request Steven Pinker to get it dubbed into all the world languages ,if it is possible.Since it gives an alternative picture hopeful picture of the world.I hope our indian babas,Sadgurus,Chagantis, Garikapatis &their ilk must watch it
Refreshing to hear Steven Pinker talk about progress! 👍😎👍
People get SO angry when I mention stuff like this to them. I get the feeling a lot of them are unhappy about other things in their lives.
That's why you hold onto the information for yourself. Don't try to enlighten anybody unless the come to you for it. It takes a special person to wanna go deeper. I'd say most dont want to and they'll think you're unstable and weird. Luckily you have us here in the comments who'll listen to everything and understand it. ❤
Of course they do. In fact, the people with the most issues in their lives are the ones that are going to be angrier. They are externalizing their issues onto the world. If I'm doing badly, surely it can't be because of my own poor decisions... No, the world must be all wrong! So if you tell them that the world is actually improving they lash out at you, because you leave them without their favourite excuse for the misery in their lives.
Don't bring it up like you're trying to minimize their problems
people love to blame other things for bad circumstances in their lives (like 'the system')
@@Maceta444 It's strange because I myself have suffered severely and been deprived of relationships and a career over the last 15 years of my life to devastating mental illness and prescription drug addiction, partly due to a shocking series of basic errors by medical professionals, so if anyone has a license to complain about the system it is me. But I know WHO to blame and who not to. It was a few medical professionals and laypeople who screwed up, and the general appalling state of mental health care in Canada.
I didn't blame neoliberalism, or immigrants, or Noam Chomsky's evils of everything (is he ever happy?) or whatever. I can still recognize that global poverty and hunger is on the decline. I even know that Russia's war in Ukraine right now would barely have gotten noticed before the 24 hour news cycle. Etc.
I suppose I am really good at not projecting my pain outwards and knowing that it really lies within the confines of my own mind and how shittily designed it is. It didn't evolve for good risk assessment or perspective. It didn't have to. But now we live in a very different world. Fix the mind, fix the world. And it's going to happen, much sooner than we think.
@@squamish4244 you mention Chomsky. I think he's one of the "Intellectuals who call themselves 'Progressive'", and who _really_ hate progress.
STEVEN PINKER!!👍👍👍👍
Wow so accurate
We in India are quickly falling trap to the fourth problem that everything was perfect in past and alien powers came and disrupt us.
So true
Yes, I've noticed this narrative among Indians on the knowledge platform Quora, educated ones who really should know better. Blame everything on the British. Yes, British East India Company rule was a disaster for India, parts of which were in a state of proto-industrialization in 1800. But India was hardly in a golden age before the British. Or the Muslim rulers, because a lot of the 'British ruined everything' people are Hindu nationalists.
Must read his book "Enlightenment Now "👌👌
Have you read it?
@@Khan_Adventures Yes...👍🌸
Hey Google: Free speech is an important value. Stop being evil.
They sometimes have to be. For reasons of profit. Surely that is understandable, if not justifiable?
that microphone is inhibiting his free speech. Get better microphones Google!
@Leo Tuzzo I had to abandon the left because they just stopped telling the truth at all. Come to think of it, the idea of two sanctioned belief systems is designed to eliminate certain subject matter and control the narrative.
Chris Bova you mean the regressive left, which uses identity politics, cancel culture, etc, to shut down discussion, not classical democrats. People like Pinker, Chomsky, and Dawkins, whether you like them specifically or not, all stress that free speech matters only when you explicitly tolerate and debate positions which you strongly disagree with. People on the left and right all over the world fail to do this. But I agree that in America, certain parts of the left which are pretty large are demagogues that argue with emotion and shut down rational discussion.
An Deo and so do alt-right like you. Also strange that people use the Zionist argument when it is the right that defends Israel the strongest, while many on the left are against it.
I think the human race has collective Stockholm Syndrome when it comes to suffering, because for so long we suffered so pervasively without being able to do much about it. So suffering has been justified as "personal growth" etc. But I think about 95% of it, both outer and inner, is meaningless and we could mature and develop with a tiny fraction of what many of us actually suffer without it.
Thanks Steven. I really needed to hear this. Really great.
Brilliant, Mr. Pinker
He’s such a humble person for someone with such great intelligence
Along with “The Greatest Show on Earth” by Richard Dawkins, this in my top 5 books ever- and I’ve read a lot!
When one reads, one CAN learn a great deal. I use Bayesian Reasoning to help leverage my understanding. At the very least you CAN be exposed to many great ideas!
Great lecture. At least, we have a way forward. Thirty years ago if you said billions of people would leave poverty and ascend to the middle class people would assume that would mean a greater reliance on fossil fuels, a diminishing resource. Now, we see a path to increasing wealth and doing it with more renewable energy.
Fossil ,fuels are increasing because of tech. Renewables are tiny and unreliable, a Leftist rationalization to destroy industrial capitlism
@@TeaParty1776 Renewable energy is the fastest-growing energy source in the United States, increasing 67 percent from 2000 to 2016 (source: U.S. Energy Information Administration). Renewables made up nearly 15 percent of net U.S. electricity generation in 2016, with the bulk coming from hydropower (6.5 percent) and wind power (5.6 percent). The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects non-hydroelectric renewable energy resources such as solar and wind will be the fastest growing source of U.S. electricity generation for at least the next two years.
@@vincentdesapio > Renewable energy is the fastest-growing energy source in the United States
Renewables are tiny, unreliable, backed up and subsidized by fossil fuels. Renewables are merely an application of Marx’s barely hidden restatement of the mystical Garden Of Eden in which mindless, selfless, rightless man lives without focusing his mind.
@@vincentdesapio Renewables are dependent on FF and taxpayer subsidies and regulatory privileges. They cant stand alone. Fast growth may or may not continue. Again, they are tiny in power and unreliable. Your evasion of science is absurd./ Again, you rationalize the nihilist hatred of industrial capitalism
@@TeaParty1776 Wind and solar energy are cheaper than fossil fuels, even without subsidies. The cost of electricity coming from renewable sources has been plummeting and we're now reaching the point in which such energy is cheaper than burning fossil fuels.
For individuals; it was valuable for many to know which direction to aspire to, ie Infinte Love, forgiveness, kindness, humor, enlightenment (transcending linear Newton paradigm of reason), important paradigm transcending reason and linear paradigm
This lecture makes me happy to be living in these times. I hope the progress continues.
@English Teacher Your faith is strong.
An exponential decay in sociality and intelligence combined with an exponential growth in consumption can only be good, right?
@@TheThreatenedSwan Cause is not coincidence. Further ,an exponential growth in consumption is caused by an exponential growth in sociality and intelligence.
@@TeaParty1776 In developed countries the secular scores in IQ and sociality are stagnant or outright dropping, the global IQ is dropping, and everywhere the g factor, the underlying genetic factors for intelligence, are dropping. You can maintain an advanced society with an increase in the amount of dumb people, but you can't with such a decrease in intelligent people
@@TheThreatenedSwan You evade definitions and the cause-coincidence distinction. You ignore the conceptual disintegration of modern philosophy. Modern philosophy teaches a reality/mind split and opposes systematic thinking.
Poor audio and awkward cuts, Google. You should have higher production values.
looking at the thumbnail at first i thought it was filmed 2007, looks very similar to those google talks.
...maybe their AI did the editing?
I didn't see any significant issues with the audio or the cuts. Could you be more specific?
They don't give a fuck because they are not making money on this, they throw a dog a bone here and dont care what it tastes like
I had no such issues. Where are these alleged cuts and audio issues?
Great Scott.
Apropos big questions: Why the hell can't Google afford a decent microphone?
Great talk!
🦋
14:48 I'm curious now... how long has poverty been defined as 1.90 a day? Does that account for economic inflation?
Yes he's taking inflation into account as he talked about how before 90% of people lived in extreme poverty according to the 1.90-definition. US-dollars did not exist back then, so he is probably talking about the worth of 1.90, and not the number.
He explicitly said he was going in terms of the 2013 US Dollar. That is the definition of taking inflation into account.
What about the poverty chart he shows later on? What’s the difference between extreme poverty and poverty?
Humanism is a comittment not a fact.
One might argue whether that comittment is good or not on the basis of
- feasability (is it even feasible to improve the human condition?)
- alternatives (are there other comittments that are in some sense better and which are in conflict with humanism?)
Obviously the human condition has improved enormously, so humanism works as a commitment. But yes, there are alternatives. Yuval Harari argues that the rise of AI and genetic engineering could pose a dire threat to civilization, as they may undermine humanism, which is one of the pillars on which civilization stands.
He still supports liberal humanism as the best possible philosophy at this time. Ultimately, he says that humans must learn to develop great psychological and emotional stability in order to effectively avoid catastrophe, as the huge blind spot in the growth of civilization has been an almost total ignorance of a science of mind and human flourishing, such as what Buddhism developed, albeit to much less effect as it has only ever taken hold in preindustrial societies.
That's why there's still so much misery in countries that have all the resources they need.
> (is it even feasible to improve the human condition?)
Its happening all around you. But your anti-humanism blinds you;
We like Dr- David R, Hawkins MD, PhD calibration of Enlightenment at high levels of truth/infinite Love, and humor at 550 level of awareness, thus beneficial and healing-
Great talk and much respect for Pinker, but honey, time isn't WASTED on housework. I find handwashing my dishes and vacuuming my floor is a nice brain-break, kind of meditation. Time "devoted" to housework would be a better word choice.
I'm wondering if the removal of the heroin based opioid, due to Fentanyl (which was only a problematic ingredient), made those patients meaner because they began to feel their physical pain more. Maybe also their emotional pains. As their actual butt hurt grew so did their anger (which often is manifested in hatred).
Pinker's graph on the decline of violence is generally accurate, except he is missing the 1998-2003 Congo Civil War, basically an African world war that killed 5-10 million people, the bloodiest conflict since WW2. That would have caused a huge bulge right at the turn of the century and the line is flat instead.
So in the video Steven did look Pinker ... ...
I search this title because of the founder of UMC Mr.Tsao .
“Work is more fun than fun fun” Noel Coward and Stephen Fry
Steven Pinker makes me want to be a Canadian
Progress ist necessary that Enlightment happens.
Enlightenment is not to equate with Progress.
We have an Animal body and we can reflect on ourselves.
The Needs and Growth of the first has a healthy limit, the second doesn't.
We have create a System built on the first and we have arrived the point to change our Paradigma.
It won't work if we apply the same Tools as for the first one.
Are we capable of it? YES!
Do we want it?
Of course there has been significant human progress over the past centuries and decades. After 200 years of industrial revolution, humanity is currently at its peak, but that doesn't mean that our species is going to continue to flourish. Gradually progress will be harder to gain, growth will decline, and the ecological damage that we are doing to the planet will eventually catch up with us. I wish someone would have ask Pinker: what's the probability that we are currently at our peak?
Extraordinary how quiet the comment section is...Hes right ,liberals and progressives,( that's who watches this) would rather be negative and depressed..consider that...If only the environmental degradation was only getting better also....that's what will unite the world....more optimism...
The exact same thing could be said of the right. The right uses fear to justify extreme policies.
I look at the comment section of coronavirus economic impact videos (because now we have a pretty good idea that the death toll will not be that high, relatively), I wonder if more people are afraid of it not being as bad a disaster as some were expecting. Negativity provides such an awesome jolt to your dopamine receptors.
For instance...holy shit, what if the economy is back on its feet by July? Hell is normalcy (at least in an abstract sense - nobody actually wants upheaval to happen to themselves).
The "n"th Commandment:- Don't do Evil.., the double negative of inactivity.
Equivalent to:- Do nothing and all will be done.., the positive inactivity of Masterful Inaction.
All the Enlightening consequence of Universal Law of Least Action.
Nice style as well!
Knoblesse oblige
Why did they hide parts of the graphs?
I'm surprised none of the google employees started screaming and throwing things at him.
The audio is surprisingly bad for being a talk at google
These extensive and relevant facts are exalting, and test each one's respect for evidence and own sense of life. Bravo again, great Prof. Pinker!
Meg - are you okay? Need a hug? Seriously! Did Steven Pinker snub you at an event or something? Be honest... do you really think you’ve gathered enough (circumstantia)l evidence to make these accusations? You’ve read his response right?
In this talk, Dr. Pinker presents extensive, validatable evidence for his social observations and conclusions. It's a standard also applicable to comments, and especially when deviating from the subject and making personal affronts unsupported by verifiable facts. Thanks gorgoberry for reaching out empathetically to Meg, as well. You're admirably supporting reason and humane rapport.
I read EN and agreed w/its celebration of Enlightenment reason. I dont recall if Pinker said that it was one of only two basically rational cultures. However, Pinker evaded or ignored the profoundly important fact that the Enlightenment is the only basically individualist culture in history. Thus the creation of America after 400 years of radical cultural change from Christian supernaturalism to the individual things, inc/men, of the concrete, material universe. Thus our founding politics of individual rights. And the hatred or evasion of the Enlightenment by mainstream intellectuals.
“Nation Of The Enlightenment”, in _Ominous Parallels_, by Leonard Peikoff
@@claudiaxander > those psychopathic narcissistic would-be emperors and
dogma-wielding messiahs.
Are you implying that irrationalism is good?
@@claudiaxander Are rational people irrational?!
@@TeaParty1776 noooooooooo, i must have worded it wrongly, i re edited
@@TeaParty1776 re edited so no
he’s lightened.
なんというライティングだ笑
The best kind. Honest clear and well researched.
@@thisperson3240 And hiding a lot of information.
Watch Jolly heretic's video on this guy's book.
No. I am done reading so called critiques of Pinker. I have read to many and none of them are valid. I have no trust that Jolly heretic is going to do any better. Pinker's critiques of his work are the best.
Just read the book
@@thisperson3240Sry for intruding on your safe space.
Bye.
No intrusion detected. You were responding to me correct ? I responded back. All good.
I was more expecting an example or point that the JH video made.
Thanks
I would, truly, feel more uplifted by this if the environmental situation was not already so grim. Giant holes are opening up in the Siberian tundra from melting methane, the oceans are acidifying and Pinker's kind of like yeah let's just skip over that stuff.
@@newrev9er Not at all. I wish all of this stuff would be more well-known, because I'm sick to death of every second video on TH-cam being about the downfall of Western civilization due to social media, pornography or whatever else highly paid people can dig up to bitch about.
I still think that we can find our way through this mess. I just wish he spent more time on global warming, both here and in his book, where he kind of doesn't seem to take it very seriously, and it is very serious indeed. In fact all of the complaining about other things that he effectively counters here has often served to distract us from the actual serious problems threatening us.
11:15 - pre-pandemic candor.
Interesting hair-do
It's the Einstein look. It's sort of outdated.
“137,000 people escaped from extreme poverty yesterday!”
☼ Alright, i'll take some enlightenment now...how much, Harvard man?
@RAYfighter sold! ill just post my cc number here & youll sort the rest out?
you know, i do feel smarter already.
This is an important talk. Instead of negative beliefs we need to take this on and develop it lest religion and political ideology take over again.
I meant positive as in adding something as opposed to negating things. And I’m saying replace it with the positive beliefs of things like humanism, rationality, secularism, classic liberalism, etc. I can’t even begin to make sense of all the random stuff you wrote though.
This _is_ a political ideology masquerading as "science" and "data". It advocates heavily for the status quo using metrics that are ultimately meaningless to most if not all people to convince you _everything is perfectly fine_ .
Bisquick if what I listed down is a political ideology, which sure by default I guess it is, then its the least dogmatically ideological of any other. The whole point of it is that you should present reasons for things grounded in a secular perspective and through fields of study like science, psychology, biology.
The problem of defending the status quo or of people presenting bogus reasons for what governments and institutions may or may not be doing is in itself something you should counter with reason to steer the ship in a better direction. A government that is in line with these principles is (if its true to them) for the interest of the people. We have a long way to go before we fully embody this, its not cause for complacency.
@Meg We should let nihilist trash like you run the planet. That would improve things.
@@Wingedmagician Sense? Surely you jest? Nonsense is the Leftist message.
How come, that the most powerfull company in the world can't aford some decend microphones/sound techs?
Are they having a dig at Pinker because he's anti-Woke and Google is very Woke?
Pointing out that things could be better and that things are far from 'okay' is not equal to "denying progress". Most of the data is contextually fucked either way if analyzed correctly.
60% decline in global wild animal numbers since 1970.Not to mention the total methane , nitrous oxide , sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide levels combined equal 560 ppm CO2.
I call BS in all of that
@@harbifm766766 You may be interested in a essay by climatologist Andrew Glikson. arctic-news.blogspot.com/2019/06/beyond-climate-tipping-points.html
You are correct, there are still problems in the world and some solutions beget more problems, but the question still stands: do you think the world today is better than it was 200 years ago? This is a yes or no question, so considering ALL that's bad AND good of today and yesterday, do you think the world is better now?
For me, I'd much rather live in today's world given all it's problems than live in the world as it was 200 years ago.
@@abdurog1122a Definitely yes , but i doubt the rest of the non domesticated earthlings would concur.
@@abdurog1122a Need to look at the cost of living like this though. Hope he mentions this in a future book, it's all a bit rose tinted atm. Good to hear a positive view though, need to take what we've learned from all spheres I think and head to ways that work for the whole of it not just us. Enlightenment is at the end of its era, there's been good and bad, next philosophies will perhaps shift away from the anthropocentric, away from the mind/us as god, to us as an integral part perhaps. Hopefully. Fill it all back up again, us too.
There is nothing like the long view based upon evidence.
3:00
Because societies are more resilient against smaller disasters, peoples' proactive minds probe mega disasters now, which also reflects in the news
Yeah, it used to be, "What if the town is flooded by a storm?" now it's "What if a pandemic breaks out?" Often, too personal a disaster is too scary to think about, so the more abstract the better. As society has gotten more stable, the threat has had to get correspondingly more abstract. Obviously we seek out disaster scenarios due to a bunch of factors wired into our psyches.
I like Pinker a whole lot better than your popular intellectuals. At least he's not negative gloom and doom. So what is the biggest reason for all of the improved quality of life over the centuries?
I think it is educating not just the wealthy but also the common man. With mass education we have increased our chances of scientific advancement.
Pinker was a big supporter of James Damore.
Pinkerton is correct that the number of years between birth and death has increased - BUT - we are not living longer, we are dying longer.
Yes - for now. But there is a lot of research into healthy aging for just that reason, with some pretty incredible findings so far - and it's just the tip of the iceberg.
@@squamish4244 Healthy Ageing is only possible if we prevent the degenerative process from starting prior to, or in infancy. There is no point trying to regenerate cells that we should not have compromised from the start. The disconnect here is that technology has far outstripped the human's ability to keep pace with it so we are struggling daily to run the miles of life wearing the leaden boots of dysfunctional behaviour. There is so much that can be done from pre-conception, through gestation and from the moment of birth and onwards through infancy. If we train enough people to identify the signs of dysfunction early enough, and to address them then, we will be able to all but eliminate the onset of chronic disease in later life. In a nutshell - all the human organism wants to do is survive, breath by breath, and should the next breath not be forthcoming, death will surely follow. Therefore, the moment-to-moment focus is on 'taking the next breath' and the dysfunctions we create are usually (barring genetic faults and trauma) created in order to facilitate the 'next breath'. It is sadly too simple, and this is further complicated by the plethora of incredible technological aids that have been created to address the compensations we were forced to create, in the first place, in order to continue breathing. I have spent a lifetime being 'roughly right' in a world that insists it is better to be 'precisely wrong'.
I'm not going to debate the science with you, for there are far better people to do that. Suffice it to say that even the mainstream medical community is starting to recognize that aging is a disease that may be curable.
I refer you to the work of David Sinclair:
th-cam.com/video/9nXop2lLDa4/w-d-xo.html
Have you heard of NAD+ or its precursor, NMN? NAD is an essential ingredient in over 400 bodily functions and especially upregulating GABA receptors in the nervous system and mitochondrial activity. Its levels in the body begin dropping at age 20 and accelerate rapidly after 50.
Receiving an NAD IV drip got me off of a very tough benzo addiction last year, and also, at age 40, helped me with my strength, stamina, aches and pains, and bad back and knees. My parents, aged 66 and 67, saw the effects in me and tried it themselves. The effects on them were much greater and involved dramatic improvement in physical pain in my dad, mild arthritis in my mom, cognition in both, strength and stamina. IV therapy is the best, but pills and powders, especially pills ingested sublingually, are effective as well.
Please investigate it for yourself.
This is all I have to say on the subject. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr Pinker
Haircut Now! But great talk.
He’s a philosopher. The rule is you’re supposed to have out of control hair. Bertrand Russell, Henri Levi, etc.
Hair cuts have improvd as well, but only on average.
@@hardheadjarhead Plato, Socrates, Aristotle.
Steven Pinker is proof that whigs still rule.
More self preservationists now not more goodness I reckon
Very convincing, but I am left wondering if the data is cherry picked? This argument could be strengthened by pointing out where his thesis or 'empirical hypothesis' falls short.
It sounds like it is but it isn't. Read the book. His in depth analysis and explanation of the data sets he chose, why and the strengths and weaknesses of each is explained.
One of the easy answers to your ? is Matthew White, self described atrocitologist. Pinker uses his info but says it is a bit high in casualties.
How could one avoid the accusation that ANY set of data one uses is ‘cherrypicked ?’ He does explain his reasoning behind using some sources over others. Best thing to do is to go check it out for yourself. The funny thing is, even ‘alternative’ data still show the same trends.
THis wondering has no rational basis. Its damaging the function of your mind.
@@TeaParty1776 lol
@English Teacher Tell us about the prosperity before capitalism.
too much word unbeknown to me,😢
AMAZING TALK... !!!
This talk seems to be outdated.
I am so disappointed in humanity as of late...
How so, Trump is just one president for 1 term in one country. The enlightenment trend isn’t over, but it’s just a trend, and will have ups and downs.
I totally agree with this talk and thank you for posting it. I do want to put out though there were some comments here that didn't agree and said some controversial things that have gotten deleted. I would say that deleting these things have a more negative impact then a positive one since these people's opinions will strengthen because someone thinks that they are too dangerous or unsavory. More importantly the opportunity to reply back and change these people's point of view is gone and they will continue the way that they are. I think these people's opinions where wrong and in bad taste but not disruptive and that you're not fixing any problems by getting rid of them.
I'm seeing plenty of stupid, ugly and poor taste comments in the thread.
@@mirzhanirkegulov3966 One that I remember was saying that the acquisition of gay rights is not an indicator of progress.
Jordan Sheen, sometimes the person who posted the comments delete them themselves. You assume censorship without much evidence.
Try posting something nasty and see if it gets deleted. 😁
@@pansepot1490 It is a possibility but one is more likely than the other and to assume that what is least likely is the the truth is far worse in my opinion. There's also a number of other things that could have happened but it limits discourse and muddies the message if I would list all of them, it's far more likely that the comment was censored than anything else and it cost nothing to bring what happened to the publisher's attention. Plus I assume most people are like you and can take away that something was deleted and that I have no authority to say who it was. Hell you don't even have to believe that something was deleted.
@@mirzhanirkegulov3966 I clarified that the comment was said in a way that wasn't disruptive just controversial. Also the person who shit in your house would have a mental problem or an extreme vendetta so I think you're example doesn't work for these reasons. I'm not dictating what anyone should do I just making a comment of what I wish they would do and I think it's appropriate to do in this space.
the world is a grand place for the pinker and epsteins of the world
sellout87 how stupid you are
I heavily disagree with the argument, that the world is getting better and better.
I don't know, if you have read Pinker, but he collected a number of graphs that show, that in the last 100 years, literacy went up, child mortality down etc.
And all of that is true. But frankly, many of these statistics just don't matter that much for human wellbeing. In our civilization for example, we spend MUCH more time working, then hunter gatherers did. Over 8 hours usually, compared with modern hunter & gatherers 3. And despite our wealth, we are spending much less time with loved ones, we are eating much worse food. Not because we do not have enough money, but because we have so much.
Humans are biological machines build for a certain environment, and currently we are living like a penguin in the desert. Yes, human beings are flexible, and yes, we are much richer now, but giving the penguin a fancy scarf and a lamborghini (in exchange for massive stress and a 1/3 of his life) won't make him much happier, will it?
Many of the problems we face, like the high amounts of stress the average person faces, come from this fact.
In the wild, you see a tiger, you release cortisol, you run, cortisol decreases again. But work stress is different. You are under it constantly. And your body expects you to run and run. But you never do. Your body can't distinguish between work from tigers after all.
Yes, individuals might rise above this suffering, by working much less, spending time in nature (or what's left of it), spending time with their families, eating healthy, and moving.
But the average person is lazy, as evidenced by modern society. We know all these things, but hardly do them. We always go the easiest way. And so nothing is going to change...
Another thing, people like Pinker keep forgetting, is that we are not allone on this planet.
A child, a dog, and an old man might lead very different lifes. But in suffering they are the same.
Our modern wealth, and easy access to food is build on the destruction of countless eco systems. We let millions of cows and pigs suffer in completely immoral ways, so life is easier for us.
Look at pictures of massive farms today, where pigs stand in their own shit, barely able to move, or where chickens start mutilating each other, because they are so stressed, because they are crammed into such small spaces. They are being born into disguisting conditions, just to suffer and eventually be slaughtered.
Imagine yourself in the position of a baby cow for example. Being taken away from your mother immediately after birth, because you were only born for your mothers milk. Imagine how horrified you would be if we did that to say dogs, or humans.
We like to think of cows and pigs as there stupid things, that don't deserve better. But pigs are amongst the smartest animals on this planet. Much smarter then most dogs... Imagine, again, how you would think about our current treatments of pigs and cows, if say the chinese did the same thing with dogs.
For hindus cows are holy, and we still eat them, so why wouldn't they. Imagine, what you would think, about puppies taken away from their mothers, about dogs and cats standing in their own excrements etc.
So is the world really getting better? For whom?
I know the past was pretty shitty. I think, human wellbeing follows a sort of U curve. It was high in hunter gatherer times, fell with the advent of agriculture, which could sustain many more people, but with a lower quality of life, and now is rising again. Perhaps we are actually the happiest we have ever been, I don't know. Although, after having watched videos of modern hunter & gatherers, they seem like increadibly happy people, despite, or maybe because of their hard lifes.
I also know, that we can not go back to hunting and gathering, and can't go back from factory farming either, if we want to hold our current population number. Perhaps future inventions like cheap artificial meat will release farm animals from their suffering (at the cost of their extinction...)
Sidenote:
I am neither vegetarian nor vegan. But after thinking about it, and writing this, I am strongly considering becoming one (vegetarian).
This post was also about factory farming, not hunting/ the concept of eating meat in general. I have no problem with that.
Also, there are likely hundreds of grammatical and spelling mistakes. Please excuse them. I am still learing english :)
I haven't seen the talk just yet, but i think Steven Pinker talks specifically about the enlightenment, that's why you wont see any graphs below 1700 or so (well besides the fact that we dont have the data below a certain point).
So his point being that the enlightenment made things better (compared to the state before) is absolutely valid.
Also i'm not sure your argument about hunter/gatherers being happy is really valid. It's true they had to work less, spend more time with their family and stuff but it's not like they just lived happily - ran from a tiger a few times and that's it. They always had to be afraid of a way bigger variety of threats compared to today. This not only includes tigers but also weather - ilnesses - food shortages etc.
So besides the fact that we can't really know if they were more happy or not - none of us would actually want to swap with them.
That's why i think mindfulness is very important to be able to enjoy what you got - enjoy the warm bed/shower in winter, the tasty (or not so tasty) food, the fact that you can just go for a walk without any fear of getting murdered by a tiger or other human being etc.
Ofc the problems you adress exist and society should be talking about them and finding solutions (such as in-vitro meat etc).
I think (also biologically spoken) our well-being can be "measured" with our reproduction rate - the higher the rate the better we are - so it's probably more linear than U-curved as you described it.
@@s1nnl0s Thanks for the response. I was a little drunk when writing this, and I am generally not the happiest person, so I think I just needed to vent a little.
I will try to incorporate a more nuanced picture of our past into my worldview in the future.
I guess I am romanticising the past so much, because I really don't like the present :)
I will try to start practise mindfullness as you suggested.
Now about the points in your post directly:
1) Yes, that is certainly true. I did not mean to say that Pinker was somehow holding back data, because he knew the past was better, but just took him as an example of someone who thinks, that technological process is proportional to human wellbeing.
2) I actually still think, this point is true. I will try to find actual statistics in a moment, but my view is based mainly on the reports of people like jared diamond, who actually lived with hunter and gatherers.
I would distinguish between happiness and pleasure. For example, when you become a mother/father, the first few years are not actually all that pleasant (less/disrupted sleep, changing diapers, lots of crying and puking etc.), but still, I wager that most parents do not regret their decisions. That is, because even though an experience is not pleasurable, it still gives meaning to your life.
A smaller example are video games and sports. I have played a lot of cuphead. Whilst doing so, I spend most of my time frustrated and angry. But in the end, the feeling of having acomplished something still felt meaningful, and the overall experience was positive.
Not only can a hunter & gatherer find meaning more easily through connections with family and the tribe, but these temporary negative experience also serve in making life more meaningful, instead of the "I can do whatever I want, there are no real risks, I will always survive" life of today. Now, you might say, that today you have still a lot of risks, like loosing your job. But the type of stressors is different. instead of a short burst of stress, that is then resolved through physical exercise, there is this constant, smaller, but still felt stress from work etc, that you can not really get rid of. There is also never this positive experience of "I survived and have a story now". instead, you always just end up at neutral.
I know, this does not apply anymore today, but farmers were actually more affected by changes in weather, because they relied on a single source of food, so they can not just temporarily switch their food source if something goes wrong.
3) in regards to us being happier now:
in the book tribe (and the joe rogan interview), Sebastian Junger talks a lot about Isolation in the modern age. He mentioned the fact, that whites captured by native americans, when given the choice later in life, almost always wanted to stay with the tribe. The same was not true the other way around, despite our superior technology. He had actual statistics for this, and many other interesting facts, so I can only recommend this book.
4) Have you read either sapiens by Harary or Guns, Germs and steel by Diamond?
In those books, the authors argue, that, because agriculture is more area efficient, it spread because more people -> more military power -> able to get more land etc. This is why, today, hunter and gatherers only live in areas, where agriculture is impossible. This did not, however, increase their standart of living. Early agriculturists for example were on average 10cm shorter. This is used as an indicator for malnourishment. There are many similar facts (median lifespan decreased, higher reliability of a single food source etc).
This does not mean, ofc, that modern life is worse than that of hunter gatherers, but I think it is very well established, that quality of life did go down a little with the invention of agriculture, in exchange for the ability to feed higher numbers of people.
So I think your last point is not entirely valid here.
So I agree, living primitively is not the end all solution, it has a lot of problems. The same goes for modern society. We need to find an approach, that incorporates the good aspects (tribal bonds, less continual stress, less artificial stressors like artificial lights, more living with nature etc) into our current society.
Again, I apologize for the no doubt hundreds of spelling mistakes :)
Books I recommend, if you are interested in my perspective (if you have a recommended reading list too, I would be happy to try to understand your perspective better)
Sebastian Junger: Tribe
Jared Diamond: guns, germs & steel/the world until yesterday
Harari: Sapiens
@@s1nnl0s Mir ist erst jetzt klargeworden, was dein Benutzername ist :D Ich gehe davon aus, dass du Deutsch sprichst?
Würde es dich stören, die Konversation auf Deutsch weiterzuführen?
@@aldoushuxley5953 Haha kein Problem, können wir gerne machen, auch wenn dein englisch absolut einwandfrei ist :-)
@@s1nnl0s Vielen Dank :) Ich glaube, hätte ich nicht deinen Benutzernamen gesehen, wäre mir nie aufgefallen, dass du kein Amerikaner bist :)
Google here's an idea. . .maybe you could *STOP BEING EVIL?*
Just a thought. . .
"Fat people, fatter."
Things are better than ever before in human history. Don't forget to mention this fact to SJW's calling for a civil war because things are so 'bad'.
@@dylanlouth You're a fool. Get a job.
@@erixoz8535 You're a gullible status quo warrior -- get with the program
@@AndyAnaya Get a job you clueless buffoon.
@@dylanlouth Your nihilist-Leftist desire for destruction is noted.
@@dylanlouth For Leftists, the needy and the environment are rationalizations for the sacrifice of their main enemy, mans independent mind. Man has a moral right to his own life. Man is not a moral slave to man. And the environment is merely a tool for mans life, not a new god demanding suffering and sacrifice. Mans life requires changing the environment. Man is not an animal, surviving by passively adapting to the environment.
Mr. Pinker’s statistics for progress are based on economics and an artificial human construct of currency, ignoring energy. He’s under the misconception that a jewel is more important then a joule! Mr. Pinker’s statistics are often based on percentage of the population, when the population 150 years ago was less than 1 billion and now it’s 7.7 billion. Comparing the poor 250 years ago to today, there is progress but what if you compare the elite 250 years ago to today.If not a Field Guide to Lies, it’s a field guide to misconception. Mr. Pinker also leaves out statistics about the increase in cultivated land and decrease natural biomes. Talking to a google audience, who contributed more to google success, Adam Smith, or James Clark Maxwell?
I suggest reading Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World (2018)
I heavily disagree with the argument, that the world is getting better and better.
I don't know, if you have read Pinker, but he collected a number of graphs that show, that in the last 100 years, literacy went up, child mortality down etc.
And all of that is true. But frankly, many of these statistics just don't matter that much for human wellbeing. In our civilization for example, we spend MUCH more time working, then hunter gatherers did. Over 8 hours usually, compared with modern hunter & gatherers 3. And despite our wealth, we are spending much less time with loved ones, we are eating much worse food. Not because we do not have enough money, but because we have so much.
Humans are biological machines build for a certain environment, and currently we are living like a penguin in the desert. Yes, human beings are flexible, and yes, we are much richer now, but giving the penguin a fancy scarf and a lamborghini (in exchange for massive stress and a 1/3 of his life) won't make him much happier, will it?
Many of the problems we face, like the high amounts of stress the average person faces, come from this fact.
In the wild, you see a tiger, you release cortisol, you run, cortisol decreases again. But work stress is different. You are under it constantly. And your body expects you to run and run. But you never do. Your body can't distinguish between work from tigers after all.
Yes, individuals might rise above this suffering, by working much less, spending time in nature (or what's left of it), spending time with their families, eating healthy, and moving.
But the average person is lazy, as evidenced by modern society. We know all these things, but hardly do them. We always go the easiest way. And so nothing is going to change...
Another thing, people like Pinker keep forgetting, is that we are not allone on this planet.
A child, a dog, and an old man might lead very different lifes. But in suffering they are the same.
Our modern wealth, and easy access to food is build on the destruction of countless eco systems. We let millions of cows and pigs suffer in completely immoral ways, so life is easier for us.
Look at pictures of massive farms today, where pigs stand in their own shit, barely able to move, or where chickens start mutilating each other, because they are so stressed, because they are crammed into such small spaces. They are being born into disguisting conditions, just to suffer and eventually be slaughtered.
Imagine yourself in the position of a baby cow for example. Being taken away from your mother immediately after birth, because you were only born for your mothers milk. Imagine how horrified you would be if we did that to say dogs, or humans.
We like to think of cows and pigs as there stupid things, that don't deserve better. But pigs are amongst the smartest animals on this planet. Much smarter then most dogs... Imagine, again, how you would think about our current treatments of pigs and cows, if say the chinese did the same thing with dogs.
For hindus cows are holy, and we still eat them, so why wouldn't they. Imagine, what you would think, about puppies taken away from their mothers, about dogs and cats standing in their own excrements etc.
So is the world really getting better? For whom?
I know the past was pretty shitty. I think, human wellbeing follows a sort of U curve. It was high in hunter gatherer times, fell with the advent of agriculture, which could sustain many more people, but with a lower quality of life, and now is rising again. Perhaps we are actually the happiest we have ever been, I don't know. Although, after having watched videos of modern hunter & gatherers, they seem like increadibly happy people, despite, or maybe because of their hard lifes.
I also know, that we can not go back to hunting and gathering, and can't go back from factory farming either, if we want to hold our current population number. Perhaps future inventions like cheap artificial meat will release farm animals from their suffering (at the cost of their extinction...)
Sidenote:
I am neither vegetarian nor vegan. But after thinking about it, and writing this, I am strongly considering becoming one (vegetarian).
This post was also about factory farming, not hunting/ the concept of eating meat in general. I have no problem with that.
Also, there are likely hundreds of grammatical and spelling mistakes. Please excuse them. I am still learing english :)
Far left = Far right, The point you got to the far left, you catually right in the far right. It's a circle.
so whats the conclusion again?
The conclusion is that if you never wash nor comb your hair - you get speaking gigs with Google.
The conclusion is that the world is getting better.
@@PetersFXfilms yet suicide rates and other evidence suggest otherwise
@@SirAndrewII in america the causes of suicide are mainly; easy access to firearms and a terribly corrupt inefficient healthcare system due to insurance industry lobbying (open bribery).
It is getting better
because of enlightenment! The title often hints at the message.
The literacy figure for the USA must be greatly exaggerated ....
oof
A bit of a reality check for the ideologues at Google.
Google hosting a talk about enlightenment is like McDonald's giving advice on healthy eating.
Thats the power of data. It overshadows the emotions. Sometimes its good, but not eveyrtime. Can this bring relief to a mother who has lost her child ? What wud she do knowing how better the world have become in 100 or 200 years? Humans care about their own world, their own lifetime , own people which is sufficiently good unless it harm/overpower other humans.
I think the power of data to overpower emotions means that we can stop going around thinking the world is ending when it really isn't, and basing our political decisions on that. There are two ways to read what you wrote.
Pinker is brilliant - but his obsession with Trump is embarrassing and childish. If he could allow himself to see how openly corrupt the Clintons really are, I only hope he'd be even more mocking and critical towards them. This hypocrisy of his drives me crazy.
I see he missed his flight on the lolita express.
I see you missed your opportunity to exercise rationality and to uphold levels of scrutiny by which you’d no doubt wish to be held.
Please leave the charts on screen longer next time, this is unwatchable...
Read the book
Be thankful for so much knowledge, and humble for being so slow
Seriously? You can’t be arsed to pause? Can you remember a time before the internet. Where you’d be lucky to see this sort of thing on terrestrial TV. Unable to pause, you’d have to .... remember things.
Your snarky comment is indicative of the 'spoiled rotten' generations who are growing up in a modern, liberal, safe, and affluent society.
Ricky Flemming - well, it was meant kind of tongue in cheek but it’s difficult to take the piss in the comments without someone from the outrage police taking things seriously.
He was on the *Lolita Express* with Epstein.
I've had a bad feeling about him since the 1st moment I've seen him.
Yeah, and so were Stephen Hawking, Lawrence Krauss, Ben Goertzel, Jaron Lanier and a load of other top scientists. He offered them the prospect of money for their pet projects. He handed out what ended up being paltry sums compared to his fortune. None of them had any idea about how far his perversions went. Many chose to look the other way at his lesser kinks and weird talk. The farthest Pinker got were dinners. So no, he was not on the Lolita Express, and neither were any of these guys.
If you're looking for villains go to the obvious - politicians.
Full NYT article:
www.nytimes.com/2019/07/31/business/jeffrey-epstein-eugenics.html
The lack of doubt in the mans tone is just disconcerting
Very revealing for an academic. He's pretty good at language stuff but preaching this "enlightenment now" nonsense is not only incredibly misleading, it's quite dangerous in its potential for stoking apathy among the people that actually _can_ change something.
Bisquick - or maybe it’s exactly what’s needed for those who think we should drain the swamp, smash the machine etc? The majority who are understandably taken by the negativity bias and availability heuristic... who take it for granted that they can get enough calories to survive, can criticise the government, can debates things on the internet via our handheld devices... The rise in populism didn’t come from nowhere. Pinker explains all of this this in the presentation of course. He’s pretty explicit about not taking progress for granted. That it’s not driven by magic, etc,
@@gorgoberry u don't need that many calories to survive
F Rizzie - really? how many exactly is ‘that many’?
Bisquick - has there not been an increase in: Life, Wealth, Sustenance, prosperity, peace, freedom, safety, knowledge, leisure, happiness? What’s wrong with the data Pinker uses? Are these not suitable measures of wellbeing? Would improvements in these measures not constitute ‘progress?’ Would you rather have been born into an other time?
This is one of the most self-contradictory viewpoints I've come across.
How?
@@rckflmg94 yeah I would like to know that too....
Whatever study that was done on working mom's and kids was lazy and pencil whipped.
Beasttrik - oh? You have contrary data?
Working moms still work their asses off.
wealth has gone up 200 times , now tell me how many people used to own houses instead of "renting" and tell me how much of that wealth went to the 1 percent compared to the rest, oh we should be thankful we can owe cars but cant afford anything bigger than an old shoebox , so much progress...
He addresses this at th-cam.com/video/zkPOHB2rRkc/w-d-xo.html . The point of his talk is not that the world is perfect, but that progress is being made and has been made. This doesn't mean that we should be complacent, but rather that we should keep using the methods we have used successfully in the past to make progress to continue on a path that encourages human flourishing. I also think it's important to note that you point to one issue in one country and then sarcastically say "so much progress". Yes, we can find specific things that have gotten worse in specific places. But this doesn't mean that on average everything has gotten worse for everyone. We just have one specific setback to overcome.
How many people used to own houses ?
Well, depends where and when you are talking about, and also what you mean by 'own'.
In most of the developed world in most of history, the land and the houses on it have always been owned by the state. Either as The Crown or the Govt.
During feudal times, 'ownership' was always passed down to a noble, but ownership itself isn't that meaningful when ownership can be taken away at any time.
Property rights in the West are more reliable than they have ever been, and 'The 1%' have fewer rights over less of that property than ever.
...By all means prove me wrong by citing some sources. Also take into account population growth.
Homeownership is one of many statistics that peaked in the early 2000s. A higher percentage of Americans owned homes in 2018 than ever in history before 1996--The peak was in 2004. The share of the wealth that poorer people have is at a historic low but the amount of wealth, adjusted for inflation that poor people have has never been higher.
Also the amount of wealth mobility (the number of people who will move from one quintile (top 20, 40, 60, 80, 100th percentiles) to another) has never been higher and is most extreme for the very wealthy and very poor.
www.jchs.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/homeowner_households_tenure_projections2015-2035-spader_et_al_0.pdf
Now if you want to talk about the change in prices of things the statistics are variable but broadly speaking (and adjusting for inflation) groceries are down about 20% (from 1978), utilities are flat to up 15% (from 1978), rent is actually slightly down in price outside of the top 150 cities by population but up in price by up to 300% in the big cities (from 1978), new cars are up about 50% (from 1978) but more used cars are being sold than ever before, and college is up by 130%. (from 1988)
@@dotkill01 Nice :)
People, for some reason, hate to hear good news. I think it is because they would sooner have someone else to blame for the fact that they haven't reached their aspirations.
One of the other references to pricing is the Simon Index.
Also (and I can't be arsed to find a reference for this), high average individual home ownership is a sign of, or at least correlated with, a poorly developed economy.
The reasons are a bit complex, but relate to changes in age demography and the fact that an 18 year old should not be expected to have acquired as much wealth as a 60 year old. If they were equally wealthy, it would indicate poor wealth mobility.
Maybe people choose apartments for convenience. The 1% creates most of the wealth that keeps alive the 99%. Or did you personally create the RR, oil and steel industries? Can I count on clerks, dishwashers and bartenders to fill my car with gasoline dug from under the ocean? Or do we need rare geniuses who should be respected?
Interesting how the US is often the exception in these progress graphs. Bernie 2020
That is Venezuela 2019 for you, darling. Enjoy famine and cannibalism.
@@txdmsk Venezuela is an authoritarian dictatorship. Explain to me how ANY of Bernie's proposed policies would threaten our democracy AT ALL? Every other developed nation has socialized healthcare, some have free education, housing subsidies, etc. Please use the internet to learn something, and make sure it's not funded by billionaires like PragerU. Try David Pakman.
@@tunacanman
Bernie was praising Venezuela's leadership just until now. How dare you disagree with your Dear Leader?
Pakman is a child whose arguments smell of milk.
You are talking about robbing successful, hard working people to subsidize mostly low quality, irresponsible humans. Guess what will happen? If only we had historic precedents to show us where that line of thinking leads... Oh yeah, check out the shelves of stores under Soviet rule.
Redistribution of wealth is a moral evil, like rape, murder, exactly like theft. If you are arguing for it you have rotten values and are a rotten human being.
@@txdmsk The reports about Bernie "praising Venezuela's leadership" are false. I insist you look into this as a lesson in media literacy and so you can better calibrate how much trust you put into the news outlet(s) you read it from. They are based on a quote from an article that Bernie did not write. The article was posted on Bernie's official website because it was an endorsement of the main topic of the article, American inequalities, poverty, and lack of opportunities, not an endorsement of Venezuelan leadership.
>"Pakman is a child whose arguments smell of milk."
Notice how when people are losing debates, they resort to ad hominems.
The USSR, Maoist China, Cuba, and Venezuela are all perverted authoritarian forms of socialism in which the state, ruled by a dictator, nationalizes industries and tries to plan the economy. Explain to me how this would happen under a healthy democracy with checks and balances. Why hasn't this happened to Sweden, Denmark, and Norway which are social democracies? Socdem is not far left in most countries.
I believe in a form of capitalism that rewards people in proportion to the amount of value they provide society. Unfettered capitalism is not some infallible force that does this by itself. It has to be guided. The top 3 wealthiest individuals own more wealth than the bottom half combined. You speak of "robbing successful, hard-working people" while CEOs are getting paid up to 300x more than the lowest paid workers in the same corporation who are working 40hrs/week yet getting paid poverty wages. Does the CEO work 300x harder or provide 300x more competency? Who is really getting robbed?
@@tunacanman "Does the CEO work 300x harder or provide 300x more competency?"
No, he probably has thousands of times an average worker's competency.
Do you think Jeff Bezos' empire could have been built by you or me, or by the average worker?
Amazon has about 600000 workers in the US alone. Without Bezos they would be unemployed, or would have a shittier job, with shittier pay, and the rest of the population would not be able to enjoy the services of Amazon.
The moment you penalize Bezos, or hypersuccessful people, they will turn their talent and time towards something else. In the end, the greatest loser of that penalty will be small fry everyday joes who are too dumb to run a successful business.
And make no mistake. Most of the work in any team or company or workplace is done by a hypercompetent minority. Nature is not big on equality. Some of us are born with exceptional intelligence, force of will, stubbornness, curiosity, cooperative skill, and some of us go to great lengths to hone our abilities, or stick with problems for longer, or work harder, etc.
Compared to a bottom feeder of Mensa, the average joe is mentally retarded, has a childlike grasp on the world and is completely unable to execute cognitive tasks that an entry level Mensa member can do as easily as breathing. Guess which one is more likely to operate on you, should you be sick? Why would you want to penalize those people?
*_Enlight US_*
All I have to say about this is people should watch Dr Edward Dutton's video on Pinker and his Enlightenment Now. Dutton talks a lot of sense as ever. But if you wish to stay ignorant then go ahead and go along with the Pinker narrative.
Far lefties- "what do we really know about facts anyway?"
The points about the world becoming a shithole are just as frequently made by the far right.
@@squamish4244 citations?
Citations for your claims first.
@@squamish4244 I didn't make a claim
Your claim was that far leftists don't know about facts. Unless you were saying philosophers or progressives don't, in which case, Pinker is incorrect. Philosophers may ask questions like that, but leftists don't.
Isn’t Pinker a psychologist anymore?? Or has he now become linguist, philosopher or whatever is needed??
Yes. And cognitive scientist
He always was all of these. Google him.
A summary of Yuval Noah Harari's writing, which are the same from others.. At least should deliver a new interpretation. Selling books!
Doesn't the arrogant, pretentious Harari label Liberalism as "dogmatic?" Sounds like the Communists and Fascists that preceded him.
How could he possibly claim that less of someone's paycheck goes to a necessity than it did in the 1950's in America ? Rent alone has gone from 11% of an American workers net pay to 24%. The avg isn't a great way to measure how things are working for everyone. Income inequality skews the numbers dramatically
THERE IS NO ENLIGHTENMENT
Jeffrey Epstein brought me here.
Steven William Bayless Parks hopefully a positive consequence of people drawing a very unreasonable and politically motivated conclusion based on a ridiculously tentative association.
You are a little old for Epstein and the Clinton's and Trump said he likes his daughter....so....
Meg! “Picking up on vibes”?????? Think about the accusations you’re making. Imagine if you were in a situation where accusations were made against you... what sort of level of proof what you be happy with before people drew conclusions about you ? Proof beyond a reasonable doubt? The preponderance of evidence? Or is professor Pinker’s reputation collateral damage in your tribalistic pursuits? Could you be a victim of confirmation bias? I don’t believe you’re a person without conscience, or a sense of justice...
@@gorgoberry Jeffrey Epstein brought me here, again.
Meg Meg - just to let you know, I read your comments and try to distinguish assertions from arguments. So far... zero arguments.
But one particular assertion you’ve made is that “this is the court of public opinion”. The implicit assumption I guess is that the level of proof required to draw a conclusion is significantly lower than any legal system...?!?! Care to elucidate?
My understanding of a measure of public opinion is that a survey of a representative sample of the population must be completed. Can you point me towards some data in this respect?