For cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker, it is vital that we appreciate how much progress we have made in liberal democracies—and that we owe that progress to Enlightenment humanism—if we wish it to continue: A liberal democracy is a precious achievement. Until the messiah comes, it will always have problems, but it’s better to solve those problem

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The historian Adam Garfinkle gives more pointed expression to Mir and Wolf’s concerns. He contends that abstract reasoning is “integral to liberal-democratic politics.” After all, “the concept of a depersonalized constitutional order” and “the virtues of doubt, dissent, and humility” are “very abstract ideas.” As deep literacy declines, the public ... See more

Fukuyama was so prescient. In a society with strong rights and material comfort, but light on demanding shared purposes and some degree of sacrifice, thymotic energies go searching. Some quiet into bourgeois hedonism; other will seek “metaphorical wars” and eventually real ones. https://t.co/PfwPxzto4Z