I borrow my title from Jonathan Swift, who was writing about the problem of starvation in eighteenth-century Ireland. Swift’s proposal for solving the problem, considered one of the best examples of irony in English literature, was for the starving Irish to solve the problem of starvation by boiling and eating their babies. Swift’s proposal was, of course, anything but modest. It was also satire—educated people of the time were not expected to take it seriously. Today’s Republican Party, however, has been proposing actions, while not as horrific as boiling and eating babies, would foster almost as much misery for the . . . → Read More: A Modest Proposal
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Steven Pinker’s new book, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress is a beacon of hope in what I have been considering “dark times.” If you’ve been reading my blog awhile, you know that I haven’t been happy about Trump’s presidency. Pinker’s book has convinced me that there’s a lot more “ointment” than there is “fly.” Things in general will continue to get better in spite of Trump’s efforts to return us to the “dark ages.” Progress is not guaranteed, of course, but the long-term trend of history is increasing well-being for humans based on advances in . . . → Read More: Enlightenment Now  Comments are closed  Blog  Big Enders, Buddhism, Catholics, chimpanzees, cultural differences, culture, dark ages, enlightenment, Enlightenment Now, Fisk University, fly in the ointment, gorillas, Heaven Is 10 Zillion Light Years Away, humanism, Imagine, Imprint Period, internecine, John Lennon, Jonathan Swift, Little Enders, Marian Fuson, Modeling Period, Morris Massey, Muslim Countries, Nashville, Nelson Fuson, Pinker, presidency, progress, Protestants, reason, science, Socialization Period, Steven Pinker, Stevie Wonder, Trump, well-being, What You Are Is Where You Were When |
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