ZeroFox Given
Many will say that, in terms of “Humanity” – progress isn’t being made. Steven Pinker argues that since The Enlightenment, an enormous amount of progress has been made – and looks at several measurements in order to demonstrate his point.
Follow me on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/ZeroFox_Given
Buy Steven Pinker’s book “Enlightenment Now”
https://www.amazon.com/Enlightenment-Now-Science-Humanism-Progress/dp/0525427570
Source of clip:
https://samharris.org/waking-book-club-1/
Source
Lots of data and good facts, but didn't convince me that intellectuals and media hate progress. I understand why media report bad news and that is because it gets people to watch and therefore makes them money. That doesn't mean they don't like progress, it just means they want money.
:'D :'D :'D :'D someone buy this idiot a drink :'D :'D :'D
Title is misleading.
This is the second video from your channel that I have watched. Are they all a video from someone else with 30 seconds of your material bookending them?
Talk about disingenuous statistics. Poverty based on disposable income?? Without taking into account the cost of housing?
Pinker is the master of happy stats. No Steve we did not have stats for homicide in the middle ages.
That hair, though. 🙂
1:45 An optimist is someone who believes we live in the best possible world. A pessimist is someone who fears this may be the case. 😉
Alright, I needed to be reminded that the human zoo is doing pretty good. I forget sometimes that when you aren't scared, you don't have to buy safety. When you find out for yourself, you don't need them to tell you.
"Life expectancy" statistics are misrepresented. They're lower because children died young. If people made it out of children, they usually lived to their 60s-80s.
Ok nice argument for the improving state of the world due to technology getting better.
What exactly does this have to do with the media and intellectuals apparently "hating" this progress?
He notes that the US has had a stagnation of human happiness, then proceeded to use a US newspaper for his measurement.
Where does he talk about "intellectuals" (a vague undefined term)?
Oh happy day !!!
To be fair, Steve Pinker does suffer from rabid technoptimism and scientism. Enlightenment progress was good, well-being can be measured "to some degree" and no, moral and political decisions cannot be taken on scientific truisms that would obsolete government structures and politics. That is a tremendously dangerous idea.
Most species are facing extinction, Western IQ has been falling for decades, they claim it has overall increased because of Chinese overpopulation, but that's not helping anybody, degeneracy and substance abuse are rampant, lots of people benefiting from welfare are parasites and criminals, most stuff produced is just junk, food is becoming toxic, people live more as drug dependent zombies, a new world war could kill much more than all previous wars, murders in countries like Meshitco have increased, not the contrary, the most backwards culture, islam, was provided with weapons they could have never been able to produce and now they're turning Europe into third world countries, african populations with the lowest IQ are booming, is becoming harder and harder to own a house, art and entertainment have been reduced to the lowest common denominator, countries like England are becoming more draconian against free speech, etc. Hell, the progress he praises produced the progressives that are bent on destroying the West and bringing communism back…
That tie say's. I've taken LSD and there is not a got damn thing you can do about it.
A speech about progress cannot be intellectually honest without addressing climate change.
That stat about moms spending more time with their kids throws this whole thing into questionable waters for me. Kids aren’t improving, and to argue that they’re implicitly better off because moms statistically spend more time with them today tells me that he’s twisting things to generate a certain reaction.
Why are you calling the Left Intellectuals? Intellect doesn't enter into it. They don't think, that is the problem, they follow an ideology and are opposed to reason. They stifle any exchange of ideas and label their opponents as racists, homophobes, xenophobes or my favorite, misogynist. It's a theater of the absurd.
what a putz!
How does one measure a subjective feeling (happiness) with empirical data?
Misleading title. 24 minutes of statistics.
Brilliant Man…must be the Hair…( just joking) this fellow is extremely knowledgeable and a definite asset to our civilisation..I thoroughly enjoyed and was totally intrigued by his Factual , historical information and rational conclusions.. Thank You so Much for posting this lecture…Deeply appreciated..Thank you for introducing me to the brilliance of Steven Pinker!
Pessimists sound like they are trying to " help" you
While Optimists sound like they're trying to " sell" you something…..VERY INSIGHTFUL. …
I dunno. This is the strangest attempt at fitting the Enlightenment to what we want it to be to tell ourselves a story. I get the need, after the rabbid class did the same thing with the Enlightentment starting a little over a decade ago. I've always loathed the tactic. It's cheap, extremely cherry picking, and used to stuff political nonesense inside that in yet a different route helped push us to our extreme predicaments.
97% less likely to be killed by a bolt of lightning…since 19OO…thats because we live indoors…in 19OO most people were farmers…farmers spent MUCH MUCH more time outdoors than we do today…
6:13 This is why capitalism is the best thing that ever happened to humanity
LOL, the media and "intellectuals" hate conservatives, they love "Progressives".
Who is he speaking to? They find some random stuff funny.
The critiques at the start "vulgar American can doism" sound word for word like Noam Chomsky who I think embodies what Pinker describes.
The US is dropping a bomb every 12 minutes without ever declaring war. That certainly helps the statistics.
Do you think that our long-term memories can store "bad things", like, flood or saber-tooth tiger eating your BBF? Over, "good memory" like your tribe found berries at the call of death, or romping with your lover?
Title doesn't seem to really match the video but I agree with what Pinkers saying so I'll give this a thumbs up anyway.
DOWN WITH THOSE USELESS PIECES OF SHIT.
WAR.
WAR CAN BE GOOD.
All these bullshit "facts" and "truths" are making my head hurt. Don't you fucks no that capitalism bad, US bad, western society very bad, ORANGE MAN BAD!
😉
NOT true intellectuals hate progress. Go back to Buddy Kravitz on the corner of Dominique St Steven. To many faults and the like to even list them here. Peter L. Dollins.
Are you saying that Steven Pinker is not an intellectual?
18:50 "Most Americans get three weeks of paid vacation." I don't believe that. Most Americans working full time office jobs for large corporations, maybe, but not most Americans.
"money can't buy happiness" no, but it can buy a hell of a lot of diversion.
and at any rate, not having money certainly doesn't buy you happiness either.
fraudulent title – good video
watch Demolition Man.
What a misleading title man!!!!
What is progress anyways? Is it killing all life on earth?
Uh, yeah, sure Steven, and the bluebird of happiness is right in your own backyard. What a purveyor of bromides!
Scientific progress and social progress aren't the same thing but science and spirituality both say that helping people and making the world a better place is the way to happiness.