The likes of Steven Pinker write and lecture extensively about how we live in the best time ever by virtually every metric. This usually includes describing liberal democracy and Capitalism as the reason why and the best systems we’ve made so far and we shouldn’t make drastic changes or risk unraveling decades and centuries of progress.
They may be technically right about quality of life and fewer wars and so on but I think they’re missing the point in several ways. Things still aren’t as good as they could be and in a sense it’s actually the worst time ever in terms of capability and unrealized potential. The people and governments of the past simply didn’t have the same ability to make the world as good as possible like we do today, yet we don’t because it would require changing the global status quo and dominant systems entirely. It’s also morally blind because bad things are still bad to the person that experiences them whether or not things aren’t as bad as they would have been centuries ago. Someone’s experience and their material situation doesn’t change merely because they’re aware that they’re better off than they would be if they lived in ancient Assyria, medieval Europe or the Congo Free State.
I think you are arguing something that (according to you - I haven’t read the material) they are making no comment on. That things aren’t as good as they could or should be is absolutely irrelevant as to whether or not things are better than they’ve ever been (by whatever metrics are chosen). That’s separate argument that needs separate support and separate methods. It doesn’t invalidate the ways in which things have much improved. If you think things haven’t improved, then bring forth those metrics in which they haven’t and people will judge those (I can think of several that have been used for this, some correctly and some erroneously).
But just that things are worse than they could/should be in no way invalidates that they are better than they have been (again, in the given metrics). You can certainly think that the argument is being made as a distraction from, real, needed change, but that doesn’t make the argument in any way false.
I think you’re incorrect in suggesting that just because things are better than ever before people don’t think we need to keep improving, especially to reduce suffering. I’m guessing you’re worried that for many of the fortunate, resting on our laurels will be morally sufficient, that there is some danger in acknowledging progress.
The wrangling over how to move forward has always been and will always be a struggle between our conservative and innovative impulses and a half full vs. half empty perspective.
You’re pointing out that there ARE some metrics by which we are doing worse than ever - ok, you’re really just saying a general “best time in history” is not well defined.
In some ways we are. I read an article recently that said rates of child abuse have declined since the 1990s. So we’re still making progress.
Having said that, democratic backsliding is happening all over the world.
We are on the cusp of AGI and ASI, and sadly AGI/ASI will likely be dominated by dictators and oligarchs to make themselves richer and more powerful, and not used for the good of the general public.
Racism, sexism and bigotry are far more acceptable now in the US vs 30 years ago. I remember when saying ‘macaca’ was a campaign ending blurb. Now being a treasonous felon convicted of rape doesn’t bother voters.
Income inequality keeps getting worse in many places. Living is becoming less and less affordable. Nobody does anything because the rich and powerful own the governments and they don’t want the problem fixed.
I think it depends on where you are born and who your parents are. Blanket statements can’t cover all the possible permutations. Lots of people will say “that things could be better”, but I would rather say “things could be worse”. You can’t really look at this question from the perspective of 8 billion people worldwide. Author Charles Dickens once wrote “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”, which really says it all. The best answer is “it depends on a variety of factors”.
yes, in almost any sense we are in the best of times. The question is how do we keep improving, and prevent regression. Is it possible? Or are we plateauing?
How specific is the best time? If by century, there’s no doubt every century is far better than the one before. If it’s by year, then I think we were better off in 2015 than in 2025.
IMHO we were living in the best of times up until around 2014 / 2015. It seems to me that a collective madness started affecting an increasing number of people all over the developed world at around that time, and the problems we are currently facing are due in large part to that*. Yes, climate change is a problem, and we are starting to see some effects, but although the chickens may be coming home to roost, they haven’t arrived yet, and our immediate problems can’t be blamed on CO2.
The real problem is the increasing number of authoritarians (by which I mean ordinary people - the elected officials are an effect, not a cause) in the developed world. I don’t pretend to know why so many people turned to fascism and authoritarianism about 10 years ago, but clearly it has happened, and has led to our world becoming a worse place than it was at the time. So my vote goes to the best time in history being roughly 2014.
*. Yes, I know that there were already plenty of people like that prior to 2014. But we had gone a really long time since those people actually had any influence on public policy and who won elections. We’d have to go back to the 1930s when guys like Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, and Franco were coming to power based on the same phenomenon of the public going crazy.
I think we were living in the “best time in history”; now we’ve passed the peak and are descending rapidly. The future hold increasing authoritarianism, irrationality, bigotry, war, economic and ecological collapse culminating in the likely permanent collapse of industrialized civilization. In a hundred years or so the world will be a more evil and impoverished version of the early steam age at best, and it’s questionable if the slide down will stop there.
Pinker is usually pretty good with numbers, so I’m sure he provided the relevant stats. Is child mortality down from what it was 10, 20, 50, 100 years ago? Is famine down ? Global life expectancy up?
Obviously, it depends on where you are. Ukrainians are definitely worse than they were 5 years ago, as are Gazans. But, on a global scale? My guess would be that most statistics continue to improve.
That’s not to say that it must always be so. I imagine the Western world took a step back as Rome fell apart and Pax Romana went away. But, in the absence of such a big event, on a global scale, things are likely better than they were, on average, 10, 20, 50, 100 years ago.
Sure. But I think there’s very few places that are better off today than they were 10 years ago, although admittedly some had their progress cut short further back than that. With Iran, for example, I’d go with the Islamic Revolution of 1979 as the date their public went crazy rather than the 2015 that applies to most of the western world. For others, such as Ukrainians, they don’t even have to go back to 2015, and in their case at least it isn’t because the public (at least their own public) went crazy. But for the vast majority of places, I think there was some time in the past, whether 2014, or 1978, or 2021, when things were better, and in almost all cases it’s because the people decided fascism and authoritarianism were preferable to the system they had at the time (although admittedly in the case of Iran they exchanged a benevolent authoritarian for a malevolent one).
I’m sure it’s not monotonically increasing (COVID probably caused a big step back on various measures), but we’re probably around where we were back then.
The most meaningful question when someone is talking about the times being “better” or “worse” is: “what metrics are you using to gauge the quality of the times?”
To me, questions about physical health, longevity, wealth, democracy, etc are red herrings in the pursuit of the “best” times.
The times are good when people feel they are. That’s it. And mostly that feeling has to do with short-term change over one’s lifetime. Long-term changes to ‘quality of life’ are not very impactful on human beings’ happiness or satisfaction.
That implies that people can’t be wrong. And which people? Because one of the common reasons for people thinking times are good is that they are getting to oppress and exploit other people.