Enlightenment Now - by Steven Pinker

 

Enlightenment Now- The case for reason, science, humanism and progress.

To begin with, the book has got nothing to do with enlightenment. Enlightenment here means the beginning of the civilisation we are currently in as per my understanding. 

So Steven has put together some mind-blowing statistics proving how our world is much better than the generations before us, defeating so many threats on human life in general. Not just the mortality rate but also the way of life, comforts and luxuries a common man has. I kind of agree because an unfortunate beggar might not have a meal but he sure has a mobile (if not a smart phone) in his pocket. It is irony that a civilisation as prosperous as ours has failed to fill all stomachs but succeeded in marketing and distributing a non-essential commodity. 

I must say I am disappointed. This book is a carefully and mindfully cut out piece from the whole story and the interpretations are complacent and self-serving. The author has purposefully chosen to look the other way and divert the attention of readers. Out of the whole the author sees and describes from a narrow point of view for example; 

1. Everything he says is only relevant for the last 500 years or so, what about the 5000+ years of history we now know? 

2. There is a hidden but implied assumption that America is the centre of the universe and the perspective of the book is limited to the west as if the rest of the world is just there somewhere, irrelevant and trying to survive. 

3. The author puts up a graph (which has a source noted) of progress in wealth which runs along the X-axis(years 1-2000) for almost two thousand years and at one point it booms straight towards the tip of Y-axis (international dollars in trillions) which means suddenly our world became wealthy and prosperous than ever in only a few 100 years. Doesn't this seem odd to you? Can it be that the measuring unit of wealth Before and After discovery of currency or Dollar (as we now know) are entirely different and are in no way comparable? The Dollar was invented in 1792 and the progress of wealth on the graph begins to spike from 1800s is that a co-incidence? Just because wealth and progress was measured differently before the invention of dollar doesn't mean there was no wealth or progress. The author must read Indian history on Vijayanagara Empire.

At this point I lost all interest in the book. I can go on discussing points such as these from rest of the book but I don't want to waste any more time even discussing this book!

Some facts and statistics are so true and factful but they are not author's own obviously. So just by including sources and mentioning the facts and charts doesn't make the whole book legible and truthful. I had a hard time finishing the book and I regret every minute of reading it. I now wonder why this book is Bill Gate's new favourite of all time!!! 

I'm giving this book a couple of stars only for the little effort it takes to collect facts and stats and combine them to give a meaning. Nothing else makes sense anyway... The book gets 2/5.