Pure Writerly Moments 2 (Short Stories, Essays, Book Reviews, and More)

Book Review - Enlightenment Now

In many ways, reading this book was similar to reading Pinker's book "Better Angels of our Nature." The theory of the book was straight-forward, the evidence was well-organized, and the insights from the data were presented clearly. The first drawback to reading this book is that it covers a lot of the same ground as "Better Angels of our Nature." The second drawback to this book is that...well, even if the conclusions of this book aren't common sense, to people who are roughly familiar with enlightenment ideals and are fairly well-read on current affairs, it sort of is common sense. That's a nice way of saying that there are few ideas in this book that will leave you awe-struck. 

That's not to see that Pinker isn't capable of writing such a book. I found "The Blank Slate" to be just such a book. That book remains one of my favorite books to this day. That is also the book I point to when I want to convince people what a great thinker Pinker is.


Pinker's argument is straightforward and comes in the preface: "I will present a different understanding of the world, grounded in fact and inspired by the ideals of the Enlightenment: reason, science, humanism, and progress. Enlightenment ideals, I hope to show, are timeless, but they have never been more relevant than they are right now." (page 12).


If Enlightenment ideas are timeless, then why do they need a defense? Pinker's answer: "The ideals of the Enlightenment are products of human reason, but they always struggle with other strands of human nature: loyalty to tribe, deference to authority, magical thinking, the blaming of misfortune on evildoers" (page 18).


In many ways, "Enlightenment Now" is similar to "Factfullness" in its use of quantitative data to make the case that life is indeed getting better. Pinker's earlier book "Better Angels of our Nature" was also a book that relied heavily on quantitative data. However, by my recollection, that book did a better job of reflecting on how the numbers were arrived at. I think numeracy is an important skill, and too often it is easy to be wowed by numbers without realizing how they are produced and the difficulty of getting reliable numbers in certain contexts -- for example, the distant past and developing countries. My recollection of "Better Angels" is a few years removed, but I seem to remember Pinker doing a better job with educating readers on how numbers were arrived at. Having said that, I do think the graphs are presented in a useful and simple way. Often, the data comes in the form of time series line charts. I think the repeated use of these kinds of statistics is great for more casual readers who need to be convinced.


Another drawback to this book is that it tends to ignore and short-change the possibility of cataclysmic blowups. The discussion of the disruptive power of AI is discussed briefly, but pales in seriousness to Yuval Harari's analysis in "21 Lessons for the 21st Century." The benefits of enlightenment are discussed abundantly, but Frankenstein monsters like mortgage-backed securities are barely mentioned. In addition, one of the most important trends of the 21st century, the explosion of debt is barely discussed. The looming debt crisis (or, I should say crises since we are talking about various kinds of debts, government, municipal, shadow banking, and private) as well as other potential crises with systemic implications -- climate change, the growing use of social media, the introduction of disruptive technologies -- are under-discussed in this book. And because these systemic crises are under-discussed, Pinker fails to deal with the mother of all questions about modernity.


Does modernity increase the risk of catastrophic blow-ups?


Since nuclear war, climate change, and contagious financial panics are the product in one way or another of modernity, science, and globalization, is there a likelihood that more potentially catastrophic phenomena could be birthed from them? And, if so, what can we do to prevent potential catastrophic blow-ups from occurring?


Another way to think about the question is this way: In what ways is modern progress like a financial bubble?


For me, a high point of the book was its discussion of tribal epistemology. I have read short articles on tribal thinking, but the review of the literature here was excellent. And for those who are searching for literature that discusses this topic, the book can make for an effective gateway.


This was written in the Guardian about this book: "More pertinently, the failed 2016 campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Remain demonstrated that, in the eyes of many people, "progress" simply meant more of the same. When people feel trapped and patronised by progress, then any alternative – even regress – will feel like freedom. Informing them that the policies of the past 40 years are still the best available starts to sound hopeless." (Full review here: )


Perhaps that's another way of saying that technocratic modernity (complete with its wonky charts) can feel emotionally ungratifying. Instead of gradual improvements and progress by a thousand nudges, there is a part of the soul that yearns for liberation, heroism, and love. People like stories with heroes and villains. Enlightenment often sees the world in terms of mechanical and quasi-mechanical cause and effect relationships. Heroism seems less like heroism when it requires design and system-thinking rather than great sacrifices.


Nassim Taleb, another writer whose work I admire, steeps his writing in decidedly non-modern ideas and sentiments -- his thinking perhaps is best described as classical and romantic. I believe anyone who reads this book ought to put it in conversation with some of Taleb's writing (one or two books is enough).


I'm sure each of the authors would hate to hear it, but I'll say it anyway -- they are better read together than separately. The unabashed modernist/enlightenment thinker is better with a classical/romantic counterpart and vice versa.


I will repeat this: People who are only familiar with Pinker for "Better Angels" and "Enlightenment Now" ought to read his earlier work "Blank Slate." That book, more than his more recent works, demonstrates that he is a true thinker and not simply a chart-jockey or dataphile.


Overall, even if you do not need to be convinced of the merit of enlightenment ideas and ideals, this is a wonderful book to read.